Valentich Disappearance
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The so-called Valentich Disappearance occurred on October 21, 1978, when 20 year old Frederick Valentich disappeared while piloting a small Cessna 182 airplane over the Bass Strait to King Island, Australia, after reporting a strange craft flying increasingly close in proximity. The disappearance generated significant press attention, both throughout Australia and internationally.
No trace of Valentich or his Cessna has been found, and his puzzling description of a large, unusual aircraft 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.
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Summary
The flight was routine, and should have taken less than one hour. Visibility was very good, and there was a light wind. Valentich began his flight at 6.19pm, local time, and was flying below 5000 feet in altitude.
A few minutes before dusk, at about 7.06pm, Valentich radioed air traffic control in Melbourne. His call was answered by Steve Robey, who remained in radio contact with Valentich for several 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 aircraft with four lights at about his altitude.
Valentich then reported that the craft had passed about 1000 feet above him at very high speed. Melbourne asked for further description of the craft, but Valentich said that due to the object's speed, was unable to offer much of a description.
A few minutes later, Valentich again confirmed that he could not identify the object, saying, "it's not an aircraft it is..." before leaving his statement unfinished. Robey asked him to describe the object as best he could. Valentch said 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." Shortly thereafter, 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."[1]
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.
The last communication from Valentich came at 7.12pm, 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.
The Search and Aftermath
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 7 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 gasoline 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 aircraft fuel.
There was speculation that Valentich was disoriented and flying upside-down, and mistaking lifehouse 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."
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 mundane explanations have been put forward (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), but none of these explanations is entirely satisfactory, and some raise as many questions as they attempt to answer.
Similar UFO-related speculations were made for the Lancastrian airliner Star Dust in Chile in 1947, which was eventually found in 1998; such speculations arose, however, without the basis of radio transmission, by either pilot or crew, describing anything similar to the manner of craft reported witnessed from the Cessna before contact was lost.
Valentich's was not the only disappearance claimed to be associated with a UFO; over two decades earlier, in November 1953, U.S. Air Force pilot Lt. Felix Moncla Jr. and radar operator Lt. Robert Wilson disappeared with their F-89C while chasing a UFO, and twenty months later, on June 28, 1980, pilot José Maldonado Torres, along with friend José Pagan, vanished without trace (despite carrying an ELT), and under highly similar circumstances, in a Ercoupe 415-D after encountering what Torres described as a "strange object in [their] course."
Investigation
Template:Wikisourcepar Two days after the incident an official Department of Transport (DOT) investigation was opened. In parallel an independent investigation by the Victorian UFO Research Society (VUFORS) was also opened under researchers Paul Norman and John W. Auchettl. The DOT investigation was finalised within two weeks with no official finding apart from the original voice communications transcript, the bulk of the original research fell upon Norman and Auchettl. Eventually the pilot’s father was able to get a copy of the original voice tapes from that nights encounter and they were handed over 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; opinion at the conclusion of the report as to cause of disappearance remained undetermined.
Sources
- Jerome Clark, The UFO Book: Encyclopedia of the Extraterrestrial. Visible Ink, 1998. ISBN 1578590299
- Haines, Richard F., Melbourne Episode: Case Study of a Missing Pilot, LDA Press, 1987, p.275. ISBN 0-9618082-0-9
External links
- The Frederick Valentich Accident (contains direct transcript of transmissions between Valentich and the Melbourne Flight Service)
- About.com: The Disappearance of Frederick Valentich
- The Frederick Valentich Disappearance by Paul Norman
- The Valentich Mystery