The record
On May 20, 1967, Stefan Michalak, a mechanic and amateur prospector from Winnipeg, was looking for minerals near Falcon Lake in Whiteshell Provincial Park, Manitoba. He said two glowing objects came down and one landed nearby. He walked up to it, heard what sounded like voices, and touched its side with a gloved hand, which melted. The craft turned and a blast of hot gas from a grid of holes set his shirt on fire.
Michalak made his way back to Winnipeg and was treated that evening at Misericordia Hospital. Medical notes describe several round and irregular burns on his upper body. In the weeks after, he reported nausea, headaches, weight loss and blackouts. A photograph taken on May 23 shows his burns, and his burned undershirt was kept.
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police interviewed him, and the Royal Canadian Air Force searched the area from the air and on foot. Michalak later led investigators to the spot. Soil and cloth samples tested radioactive, but a government survey of the site found only a small contaminated patch. A year later, Michalak and a friend brought in pieces of metal they said came from the site. A Canadian scientist found them to be nearly pure silver with a radioactive coating like crushed uranium ore.
The case went to the University of Colorado UFO study for the US Air Force, known as the Condon Report, as Case 22. It found many inconsistencies and incongruities
and said the case gave no proof of an unusual craft, while noting that if his story were physically real it would show the existence of alien vehicles. A doctor there found the chest burns were thermal, with no sign of radiation. Canada's Department of National Defence files on the case are now held by Library and Archives Canada.
