The Disappearance of Frederick Valentich

Valentich Disappearance- The Mystery

The Valentich disappearance refers to the disappearance of 20-year-old Frederick Valentich while on a 125-mile (235 km) training flight in a Cessna 182L light aircraft over Bass Strait in Australia on 21 October 1978.

 Frederick Valentich, was attempting to rack up flying time for his commercial license, flying his single engine Cessna 182 to King Island some 130 miles south of Melbourne Australia. He failed to touch down at the King Field airstrip on schedule. At 1906 his last radio transmission was received by Melbourne Flight Service Control on Saturday, October 21, which makes this disappearance unique in the annals of aviation history.

Just before his voice was abruptly cut off after making contact with Melbourne flight controllers, Valentich reported he could see four bright green lights- 1,000 feet above his position: “It is approaching from due east toward me, it seems to be playing some sort of game, flying at a speed I find impossible to estimate” And then: “It is not aircraft, it is…” Finally a long silence, broken when communication was initiated by ground control asking for an identification of the object in question. The young pilot’s answer: “It’s not an aircraft…” and the contact was lost…permanently.

An intensive land, sea and air search was begun by the Australian Navy and Air Force, centered on Bass Strait, 130 miles south of Melbourne and 25miles north of King Island, the point of Valentich’s last radio contact. But the search failed to turn out any trace of the pilot or his aircraft. It was determined that weather conditions at the time of disappearance were ideal, with almost unlimited visibility and a mild breeze. The pilot’s father Guido Valentich strongly believed his son was still alive—that he was being held by someone from another world. More importantly, the elder Valentich said his son had been interested in UFOs for many years and even reported sighting one about 10 months before. There were numerous other witnesses who called police that same night claiming to have seen a UFO on Saturday night. According to a Royal Australian Air Force spokesman, about 10 reports of UFO sightings were logged during the same weekend of the disappearance.

Frederick Valentich

Frederick Valentich had about 150 total hours flying time and held a class four instrument rating which authorized him to fly at night but only “in visual meteorological conditions”. He had twice applied to enlist in the Royal Australian Air Force but was rejected because of inadequate educational qualifications. He was a member of the Air Training Corps, determined to have a career in aviation. Valentich was studying part-time to become a commercial pilot but had a poor achievement record, having twice failed all five commercial licence examination subjects, and as recently as the previous month had failed three more commercial licence subjects. He had been involved in flying incidents, straying into a controlled zone in Sydney, for which he received a warning, and twice deliberately flying into cloud, for which prosecution was being considered. According to his father Guido, Frederick was an ardent believer in UFOs and worried about attacks from UFOs.

Details

Valentich radioed Melbourne Flight Service at 7:06 PM to report an unidentified aircraft was following him at 4,500 feet and was told there was no known traffic at that level. Valentich said he could see a large unknown aircraft which appeared to be illuminated by four bright landing lights. He was unable to confirm its type, but said it had passed about 1,000 feet (300 m) overhead and was moving at high speed. Valentich then reported that the aircraft was approaching him from the east and said the other pilot might be purposely toying with him. Valentich said the aircraft was "orbiting" above him and that it had a shiny metal surface and a green light on it. Valentich reported that he was experiencing engine problems. Asked to identify the aircraft, Valentich radioed, "It isn't an aircraft" when his transmission was interrupted by unidentified noise described as being "metallic, scraping sounds" before all contact was lost.

Search and rescue

A sea and air search was undertaken that included oceangoing ship traffic, a P-3 Orion aircraft, plus eight civilian aircraft. The search encompassed over 1,000 square miles. Search efforts ceased on 25 October 1978.

Investigation

A Department of Transport (DOT) investigation into Valentich's disappearance was unable to determine the cause, but that it was "presumed fatal" for Valentich. Five years after Valentich's plane went missing, an engine cowl flap was found washed ashore on Flinders Island. In July 1983 the Bureau of Air Safety Investigation asked The Royal Australian Navy Research Laboratory (RANRL) about the likelihood that the cowl flap might have "traveled" to its ultimate position from the region where the plane disappeared. The bureau noted that "the part has been identified as having come from a Cessna 182 aircraft between a certain range of serial numbers" which included Valentich's aircraft. The bureau also noted that while it is possible for cowl flaps to separate from aircraft in flight, this had not happened with any recent aircraft.^{[citation needed]}

Proposed explanations

It has been proposed that Valentich staged his own disappearance: even taking into account a trip of between 30 and 45 minutes to Cape Otway, the aircraft still had enough fuel to fly 800 kilometres; despite ideal conditions, at no time was the aircraft plotted on radar, casting doubts as to whether it was ever near Cape Otway; and Melbourne Police received reports of a light aircraft making a mysterious landing not far from Cape Otway at the same time as Valentich's disappearance.

Another proposed explanation is that Valentich became disoriented and was flying upside down. What he thought he saw, if this were the case, would be his own aircraft's lights reflected in the water. He would then have crashed into the water.

Another proposed possibility is suicide, although it has been suggested that he had a content lifestyle.

A 2013 review of the radio transcripts and other data by astronomer and retired U.S. Air Force pilot James McGaha and author Joe Nickell proposes that the inexperienced Valentich was deceived by the illusion of a tilted horizon for which he attempted to compensate and inadvertently put his plane into a downward, so-called "graveyard" spiral which he initially mistook for simple orbiting of the plane. According to the authors, the G-forces of a tightening spiral would decrease fuel flow, resulting in the "rough idling" reported by the pilot. McGaha and Nickell also propose that the apparently stationary, overhead lights that Valentich reported were likely the planets Venus, Mars, and Mercury along with the bright star Antares which would have behaved consistent with the pilot's description.

UFOlogists

UFOlogists have speculated that extraterrestrials either destroyed Valentich's plane or abducted him, asserting that some individuals reported seeing "an erratically moving green light in the sky" and that he was "in a steep dive at the time." Ufologists believe these accounts are significant because of the "green light" mentioned in Valentich's radio transmissions.

Phoenix, Arizona- based UFO group Ground Saucer Watch claim that photos taken that day by plumber Roy Manifold show a fast moving object exiting the water near Cape Otwaylighthouse. Though the pictures were not clear enough to identify the object, UFO groups argue that they show "a bona fide unknown flying object, of moderate dimensions, apparently surrounded by a cloud-like vapor/exhaust residue."

This picture was taken on the day of Valantich’s disappearance and to this day, has not been explained.

This whole mystery got an even more bizarre twist years later. According to the testimony of a number of witnesses, a young man who identified himself as Frederick Valentich, the Australian pilot who mysteriously disappeared in 1978 was alive and well in 1990 at Plaza del Charco, a resort on the island of Tenerife in the Canary Islands. Displaying an Australian passport to prove his claim, Valentich told those with whom he spoke on several occasions that he now belonged to a group of humans who had been “recruited” by extraterrestrials. It is also worth noting that the supposed Valentich showed no signs of aging, and resembled the photos circulated around the time of his disappearance at the age of 20. Pretty bizarre huh? I am also very curious what Valantich was doing there at this resort. Did the aliens give him a few days off?