The Valentich disappearance refers to the
unexplained disappearance at around 7:12 pm on 21 October 1978 of 20-year-old
Frederick Valentich a young Australian, while piloting a Cessna 182
L light aircraft over Bass Strait in Australia. He
intended to land at King Island and return to Moorabbin
Airport.
During the 127-mile (235 km)
flight, Valentich advised Melbourne air traffic control that he was being
accompanied by an aircraft about 1,000 feet (300 m) above him. He
described some unusual actions and features of the aircraft, saying that his
engine had begun running roughly, and finally reported that the "strange
aircraft is hovering on top of me again. It is hovering and it's not an
aircraft."
Valentich and his aircraft were never found, and an
Australian Department of Transport investigation concluded that the reason for
the disappearance could not be determined.
Belated reports of a UFO sighting in
Australia on the night of the disappearance led Ken Williams, a spokesman
for the Department of Transport, to tell Associated
Press that "it's funny all these people ringing up with UFO
reports well after Valentich's disappearance."
Frederick Valentich was born on 9 June 1958 in Melbourne. He
lived at home with his parents and three siblings in Avondale
Heights and at the time of his disappearance was a shop assistant at
an army disposals store at Moonee
Ponds. Frederick attended Keilor Heights High School in East Keilor up
until year 10, then he continued his studies at a private college. He was
popular among his fellow students.
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. His student pilot licence was issued 24 February 1977 and his
private pilot licence the following September. 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 recent 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).
With an interest in the possibility of UFOs existing,
Valentich had accumulated numerous articles about them and watched movies on
the subject, and had told his father Guido that he was worried what UFOs could
do if they attacked. His father told investigators that Frederick and his
mother had watched a UFO move off at great speed earlier that year.
Details
Valentich had a Class Four instrument
rating and 150 hours flight experience, when he filed a flight
plan at Moorabbin Airport, Melbourne, on 21 October 1978.
His stated intention was to fly to King Island in Bass Strait via Cape Otway,
to pick up passengers, and return to Moorabbin. However, he had told his
family, girlfriend and acquaintances that he intended to pick up crayfish.
During the accident investigations it was learned there were no passengers
waiting to be picked up at King Island, he had not ordered crayfish and could
not have done so because crayfish were not available anyway.
He was flying a Cessna 182-L,
with a cruising speed of around 256 km/h (160 mph), and visibility
was good and winds were light. He departed Moorabbin at 18:19, contacted
the Melbourne Flight Service Unit to inform them of his presence, and reported
reaching Cape Otway at 19:00.
At 19:06, Valentich asked Melbourne Flight Service Officer
Steve Robey for information on other aircraft below (5000 ft, 1524 m) 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.
At 19:09 Robey asked Valentich to confirm his altitude and that he was unable to identify the aircraft. Valentich gave his altitude as 4500 ft and said the aircraft was "long", but it was traveling too fast for him to describe it in more detail. Valentich stopped transmitting for about 30 seconds, during which time Robey asked for an estimate of the aircraft's size. Valentich said the aircraft was "orbiting" above him and that it had a shiny metal surface and a green light on it. This was followed by 28 seconds silence before Valentich reported that the aircraft had vanished. There was a further 25-second break in communications before Valentich reported that it was now approaching from the southwest. Twenty-nine seconds later, at 19:12:09 Valentich reported that he was experiencing engine problems and was going to proceed to King Island. There was brief silence until he said "it is hovering and it's not an aircraft". This was followed by 17 seconds of unidentified noise, described as being "metallic, scraping sounds", then all contact was lost.
Search and rescue
A search and rescue alert was given at 19:12. Valentich
failed to arrive at King Island by 19:33, and a sea and air search was
undertaken, and two RAAF P-3 Orion aircraft searched over a seven-day period.
Search efforts continued until 25 October 1978. Analysis of a fuel slick found
roughly near where Valentich had last radioed Robey proved that it was not
aviation fuel, and no trace of the aircraft was found. The aircraft was
equipped with four life jackets and an emergency radio beacon, and was designed
to stay afloat for several minutes.
Official findings
A two-week long Department of Transport (DOT) investigation
into Valentich's disappearance was unable to determine the cause, but that
it was "presumed fatal" for Valentich. A report published on 27
April 1982, summarised the radio conversations on the evening of 21 October
1978 between Valentich and Robey.
Other findings
Unexplained
sounds
During Valentich's final recorded transmission to the Melbourne
Service Unit, seventeen seconds of unexplained noise, described as being
"metallic, scraping sounds," were recorded by DOT Air Traffic Control
audio tape.
Researchers Paul Norman and John W. Auchettl received an edited copy of the original voice tape from the DOT. Auchettl had a copy analysed by the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology(RMIT) and another was taken to the United States by Norman for analysis by Dr. Richard F. Haines, a former researcher with NASA-Ames and Associate Professor of Psychology at San Jose State University.
Haines described the sounds as "Thirty-six separate
bursts with fairly constant start and stop pulses bounding each one," and
said that there were "no discernible patterns in time or
frequency." The significance of the sounds, if any, has remained
undetermined.
The Manifold photographs
Shortly before Valentich's last reported contact with Robey,
plumber Roy Manifold set up a time lapse camera and tripod on the shoreline in
order to photograph the sun setting over the water. When his pictures were
developed they appeared to show a fast moving object exiting the water
near Cape
Otway lighthouse. Manifold gave the time that the pictures were taken
as being approximately 6:47 pm (18:47 hrs), or 20 minutes before Valentich
reported having difficulties.
The pictures were later examined by Phoenix, Arizona- based UFO group Ground Saucer Watch (GSW) and by a number of independent experts. Though the pictures were not clear enough to identify the object, UFO groups argue that the distance that the object moved between frames, relative to clouds in the background, indicate a speed of roughly 200 mph.
Dr. Haines wrote of the photographs: "Based on the computerized data of the pictures, it is the consensus of the GSW technicians that the images represent a bona fide unknown flying object, of moderate dimensions, apparently surrounded by a cloud-like vapor/exhaust residue." The suggestion that the objects are solid has been dismissed by UFO skeptics who believe the object to be a cloud formation. No skeptical explanation has been given to account for the object's speed.
UFO sighting reports
After news of Valentich's disappearance became public, a
number of individuals reported witnessing unusual activity in the
area. Some people claimed to have seen "an erratically moving green
light in the sky" and in one instance witnesses, located about
2 km west of Apollo Bay, Victoria, stated that they saw a
green light trailing or shadowing Valentich's plane, and that he was in a steep
dive at the time. Ufologists said these accounts were significant as
most were recorded several years prior to the 1982 release of transcripts in
which Valentich had described the object above him as having a green light.
Comments from Valentich's father
According to an Associated
Press report, Guido Valentich, the father of the missing pilot, said
"he hoped his son had been taken by a UFO and had not crashed. 'The fact
that they have found no trace of him presents a possibility that UFOs could
have been there.'"; Guido Valentich also told the AP that "his son
used to study UFOs as a hobby using information he had obtained from the air
force. He was not the kind of person who would make up stories. Everything had
to be very correct and positive for him.'"
Proposed explanations
Conventional
Several explanations have been put forward for Valentich's
disappearance:
The possibility remains 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. This was ruled out by aviation authorities,
as the Cessna
182 has a high wing with a gravity fed fuel system, making prolonged
inverted flight impossible in this model.
In 2000 a private investigation of the incident concluded
that Valentich had become disoriented and experienced engine and radio problems
that caused him to crash into the sea. It further suggested that the Bass
Strait's strong prevailing currents might have carried his relatively light
aircraft a long distance before it finally sank.
Another proposed possibility is suicide, although it has been suggested that he had a content lifestyle.
Unconventional
Unconventional explanations for Valentich's disappearance
include speculation that the unexplained aircraft with the green light that he
reported was a vehicle of some kind, which in turn either abducted Valentich
or caused the destruction of his plane in some fashion.
Speculation that a UFO was involved has been fueled by a number of factors, including Valentich's last transmission, in which he described the aircraft shadowing him as “hovering” and “not an aircraft”, the unexplained sounds that were heard at the end of his transmission, and a rash of UFO reports from the area.
Open Government records
Australian Government's Department of Transport file was
opened in 2012 under the 20 year rule. The file reference on this document was
V116/783/1047 "DSJ - Cape Otway to King Island 21 October 1978 - Aircraft
Missing (Valentich)" is 315 pages and is open at the NAA.
A Department of Transport's Marine Operations Centre, a MARSAR (Marine Search and Rescue) file also in the 2012 open category is listed in the National Archives of Australia (NAA) file series A4703, control symbol 1978/1205 is titled "VH-DSJ Light aircraft overdue King Island".
Australian Department
of Transport report (page 1)
The following is a transcript of the exchanges between Valentich and air traffic control, from the first three pages of the Australian Department of Transport report:
19:06:14 DSJ [Valentich]: Melbourne, this is Delta
Sierra Juliet. Is there any known traffic below five thousand?
FS [Flight Services; Robey]: Delta Sierra Juliet, no
known traffic.
DSJ: Delta Sierra Juliet, I am, seems to be a large aircraft
below five thousand.
19:06:44 FS: Delta Sierra Juliet, What type of aircraft is
it?
DSJ: Delta Sierra Juliet, I cannot affirm, it is four
bright, and it seems to me like landing lights.
FS: Delta Sierra Juliet.
19:07:31 DSJ: Melbourne, this is Delta Sierra Juliet, the
aircraft has just passed over me at least a thousand feet above.
FS: Delta Sierra Juliet, roger, and it is a large aircraft,
confirmed?
DSJ: Er-unknown, due to the speed it's travelling, is there
any air force aircraft in the vicinity?
FS: Delta Sierra Juliet, no known aircraft in the vicinity.
19:08:18 DSJ: Melbourne, it's approaching now from due east
towards me.
FS: Delta Sierra Juliet.
19:08:41 DSJ: (open microphone for two seconds.)
19:08:48 DSJ: Delta Sierra Juliet, 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.
FS: Delta Sierra Juliet, roger, what is your actual level?
DSJ: My level is four and a half thousand, four five zero
zero.
FS: Delta Sierra Juliet and you confirm you cannot identify
the aircraft?
DSJ: Affirmative.
FS: Delta Sierra Juliet, roger, stand by.
19:09:27 DSJ: Melbourne, Delta Sierra Juliet, it's not an
aircraft it is (open microphone for two seconds).
19:09:42 FS: Delta Sierra Juliet, can you describe the - er
- aircraft?
DSJ: Delta Sierra Juliet, as it's flying past it's a long
shape (open microphone for three seconds) cannot identify more than it has such
speed (open microphone for three seconds). It's before me right now Melbourne.
19:10 FS: Delta Sierra Juliet, roger and how large would the
- er - object be?
19:10:19 DSJ: Delta Sierra Juliet, Melbourne, it seems like
it's chasing me. What I'm doing right now is orbiting and the thing is
just orbiting on top of me also. It's got a green light and sort of metallic
like, it's all shiny on the outside.
FS: Delta Sierra Juliet
19:10:46 DSJ: Delta Sierra Juliet (open microphone for three
seconds) It's just vanished.
FS: Delta Sierra Juliet.
19:11:00 DSJ: Melbourne, would you know what kind of
aircraft I've got? Is it a military aircraft?
FS: Delta Sierra Juliet, Confirm the - er ~ aircraft just
vanished.
DSJ: Say again.
FS: Delta Sierra Juliet, is the aircraft still with you?
DSJ: Delta Sierra Juliet; it's (open microphone for two
seconds) now approaching from the south-west.
FS: Delta Sierra Juliet
19:11:50 DSJ: Delta Sierra Juliet, the engine is
rough-idling. I've got it set at twenty three twenty-four and the thing is
(coughing).
FS: Delta Sierra Juliet, roger, what are your intentions?
DSJ: My intentions are - ah - to go to King Island - ah -
Melbourne. That strange aircraft is hovering on top of me again (open
microphone for two seconds). It is hovering and (open microphone for one
second) it's not an aircraft.
FS: Delta Sierra Juliet.
19:12:28 DSJ: Delta Sierra Juliet. Melbourne (open
microphone for seventeen seconds).
Source : Wikipedia
Source : Wikipedia
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