UFO MYSTERY: THE PILOT WHO VANISHED
IS THE CASE OF MISSING MAN FREDERICK VALENTICH AUSTRALIA’S MOST CREDIBLE PROOF OF UFO ABDUCTION?
There was something strange in the skies over the southern Victorian coastline in October 1978. For weeks, reported sightings of bright lights, unusual activity and unexplained flying craft had been made – so many it couldn’t be dismissed as a coincidence or hoax calls.
All those reports took on new significance after the evening of October 21, when young pilot Frederick Valentich was flying his Cessna 182L aircraft over
Bass Strait and reported to air traffic control that he was being followed by a UFO. After six minutes of describing the strange behaviour of the unidentified craft, Frederick and his plane disappeared, never to be seen again.
“This was a huge story all around the world at the time as no-one could explain it, and they still can’t to this day,” Ben Hurle, director of the Victorian UFO Action Group, tells New Idea. “For a pilot and his plane to disappear off the face of the earth after he reports he’s encountering an unknown craft flying around him, that raises a lot of questions and the implications are frightening.”
It was during the early evening on Saturday when the saga unfolded. Frederick, then aged 20, took off in his single-engine light plane at 6.19pm from Moorabbin Airport in Melbourne’s southeastern suburbs. He was embarking on a 235km trek across Port Phillip Bay to Cape Otway, and then due south to King Island in Bass Strait.
Frederick, who had dreams of becoming a commercial pilot, had been flying for two years and had clocked up 150 hours of flying time. He had made the flight to King Island many times.
Just after 7pm, Frederick radioed Melbourne Air Flight Service controller Steve Robey to report strange occurrences going on around his aircraft. Frederick asked about other aircraft in his vicinity, only to be told there was no traffic anywhere near him.
Frederick insisted, however, he could see an unknown aircraft with four bright lights moving near him at a high speed.
“It’s approaching now from due east towards me … 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,”
Frederick reported to Steve.
He then described the craft’s unusual appearance as having a “long shape”, “a green light” and “metalliclike – it’s all shiny on the outside”. He claimed it was, “orbiting on top of me”.
Steve asked him again to identify the other aircraft, and Frederick’s reply at 7.12pm was the most chilling of all.
“That strange aircraft is hovering on top of me again, and it’s not an aircraft,” he said, before the transmission abruptly ended.
What followed was later described as 17 seconds of the sound of a metallic scraping along the side of the plane.
It was assumed Frederick had crashed into the water, but despite an extensive air and sea search of the area, nothing was ever found. Steve later stated in an interview, “He [Frederick] wasn’t at the point where he was panicking, but he was genuinely concerned by what he saw.”
The Royal Australian Air Force stated it received 11 reports from people along the coast who claimed they saw UFOS and unusual activity in the skies that night. Three witnesses even said they saw a plane descending at a steep angle, with a larger object with green lights flying just above it.
Frederick’s parents, Guido and Alberta, and his fiancée,
‘THAT STRANGE AIRCRAFT IS HOVERING ON TOP OF ME ... AND IT’S NOT AN AIRCRAFT’
Rhonda Rushton, held out hope that plane wreckage and Frederick’s body would be eventually discovered.
To this day, nothing has ever been found. A range of theories soon emerged: Frederick had taken his own life by intentionally crashing, he was disoriented and flew into the water, he’d been flying upside down and the lights he saw was his own plane’s reflection, and he’d flown to either Adelaide or South America and faked the disappearance. A 1982 coronial inquiry into the case returned an open verdict.
The unexplained disappearance fascinates those who believe it is Australia’s most credible case of UFO abduction, as well as sceptics who have attempted to reveal it as a tragic accident or elaborate hoax, but have come up short in explaining the fateful night. “This entire tale defies explanation,” Ben says.
“No-one knows what Frederick actually saw, or what happened to him or his plane. Over time, there had been an acceptance that there was unexplained involvement with his disappearance.”
Ben believes there’s only two ways for the mystery to be resolved.
“Either debris is finally washed up and the aircraft is found, or Frederick miraculously turns up one day. Until then, this continues to be one of Australia’s greatest mysteries.”
At Cape Otway – the last point of the Australian mainland
Frederick flew over – a plaque in his memory was erected in 1998 at the local lighthouse.
For many years his family visited the memorial to pay tribute, wondering whatever happened to him.