On 21 January 1988 a family came in contact with a UFO while travelling across the Nullarbor Plain in South Australia.

The Knowles family set out from Perth for Melbourne, in the hope of finding new jobs. Instead, a terrifying and violent 90-minute encounter with a UFO on the Nullarbor Plain left them so shaken they turned around and headed home.

The family claim the glowing UFO, shaped like an egg in an eggcup, chased and even lifted their car off the road, dropping it so heavily a tyre burst.

During the height of the encounter in January 1988, they said their voices became distorted and sounded like they were in slow motion.

They said they drove at speeds up to 200km/h, that the car was covered inside and out by a black ash, and that the UFO landed on the roof, leaving dents.

The incident on January 20 made world headlines, with many treating their story with skepticism — so much so that the Knowles family retreated from public view before being allegedly duped by an Adelaide marketing man, and losing the car after failing to continue its repayments.