Disappearance of Frederick Valentich

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The Valentich Disappearance occurred on October 21, 1978, when 20 year old Frederick Valentich disappeared while piloting a small Cessna 182 aircraft over the Bass Strait to King Island, Australia, after reporting a strange craft flying nearby. The disappearance generated significant press attention, both throughout Australia and internationally.

No trace of Valentich or his Cessna has been found, and his description of a large, unusual object has earned his vanishing a place in UFO lore. A Department of Transport aircraft accident investigation concluded the reason for the disappearance could not be determined.

Routine flight

The flight was routine, Valentich having previously completed the same flight several times, and should have taken less than one hour. Visibility was good, and there was a light wind. Valentich began his flight at 18.19Hrs, local time, and was flying below 5000 ft.

A few minutes before dusk, at about 19:06Hrs, Valentich radioed air traffic control in Melbourne, Australia. His call was answered by Steve Robey, who remained in radio contact with Valentich for about seven more minutes. Valentich first inquired if there was any other known air traffic at his altitude. When Robey responded that there was not, Valentich described a large object with four lights at about his altitude.

Valentich then reported that the craft had passed about 1000 ft above him at very high speed. Melbourne asked for further description but Valentich said that due to the object's speed, he was unable to offer much of a description.

A few minutes later, Valentich said in an incompleted statement that he could not identify the object, saying, "it's not an aircraft it is...". Robey asked him to describe the object as best he could. Valentich replied that as it passed alongside him it was "a long shape", had "a green light," and was "metallic," as though it were "shiny all over." He then said "it seems to me that he's playing some sort of game... he's flying over me two... three times at speeds I could not identify."[3]

Valentich reported that the object vanished, before inquiring a second time if it was some manner of military aircraft. A moment later, he said the object was approaching him from the south-west.

Last communication

The last communication from Valentich was at 19:12Hrs, with the words, "Melbourne that strange aircraft is hovering on top of me again ... it is hovering and it's not an aircraft". Valentich's radio microphone remained open for another 17 seconds, while several unidentifiable noises became audible to Robey over the radio, later described as "metallic, scraping sounds," before the signal finally died.

According to a personal website maintained for the Victorian UFO Research Society Inc (VUFORS) [4] there were also reports from witnesses on the ground who claimed to have seen a green unidentified flying object. A Melbourne man, Roy Manifold, planning to film the sunset at the very time the missing pilot passed by his Cape Otway location, captured a fast moving object out at sea, running through four of his pictures, [1] under computer analysis, this object measured a velocity that was too fast to be regarded as a 'common cloud'.

According to Haines and Norman in their 2000 article (See "external links" below), the testimony of some of these witnesses is especially impressive, as it was recorded before the transcript of the Valentich-Robey conversation was made public; the public knew about the disappearance, but Valentich's report [2] of a greenish object pacing his Cessna was not widely publicised until several years afterwards [3].

After Valentich failed to arrive at his scheduled destination, searches were undertaken by sea and air. The RAAF deployed a P-3 Orion Search & Rescue aircraft to scour the Bass Straight and Cape Otway area. After seven days, with no success the aerial search was cancelled.

The Cessna was designed to float for at least a few minutes should it crash in water, and was equipped with a life vest and radio beacon to aid searchers. Searchers found a slick on the ocean near Valentich's flight route and were hopeful it might help locate the Cessna, but analysis suggested the slick was not avgas fuel.

There was speculation that Valentich was disoriented and flying upside-down, and mistaking lighthouse lights for an unusual aircraft. Robey discounted this, describing Valentich as lucid. Robey thought that the metallic, scraping sound was unusual, but somewhat similar to someone rapidly pressing and releasing a radio's transmitter button.

After five days, the searches were called off. No trace of Valentich or his plane was ever recovered, and accounts of his last flight received considerable press attention. The RAAF's official report noted that the "degree of injury" to Valentich was "presumed fatal", and added that "the reason for the disappearance of the aircraft has not been determined."

Cause unknown

Wikisource has original text related to this article:

Two days after the incident an official Department of Transport (DOT) investigation was opened. The two week long DOT investigation concluded the "cause of disappearance remained undetermined". In parallel, researchers Paul Norman and John W. Auchettl made an independent investigation for VUFORS. The pilot’s father supplied a copy of the original voice tapes to Norman and Auchettl for analysis. On April 27, 1982 the DOT published a summarial report on the incident which included all known radio traffic occurring the evening of 21 October 1978 between Delta Sierra Juliet and the Flight Control Unit at Melbourne.

Some ufologists have speculated that the craft Valentich reported was an extra-terrestrial vehicle, and that Valentich was either abducted or destroyed by such a craft.

More prosaic explanations are that Valentich ran afoul of illegal drug smugglers, or that he was struck by lightning from a lenticular cloud, or that he played a prank before committing suicide by deliberately crashing his Cessna. However, Jerome Clark (Clark, 1998) notes that most of these prosiac explanations have seen rebuttals, with critics arguing that they are inadequate, and in some cases, raise more questions than they attempt to answer.

See also

References

  1. ^ Roy Manifold Photograph Analysis - Source: J.W. Auchettl - PRA, William H. Spaulding: GSW
  2. ^ ATC Transcript at 1910:20 [1]
  3. ^ 27 April 1982 - AAISReport Ref. No. V116/783/1047 [2]
  • Jerome Clark, The UFO Book: Encyclopedia of the Extraterrestrial. Visible Ink, 1998. ISBN 1-57859-029-9
  • Haines, Richard F., Melbourne Episode: Case Study of a Missing Pilot, LDA Press, 1987, p.275. ISBN 0-9618082-0-9
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