DID ALIENS ABDUCT REALLIFE PILOT AND HIS PLANE?

FOR decades, pilots have been reporting seeing unexplained lights in the sky.

But when young Frederick Valentich disappeared while on a routine training flight, having told thge air traffic controllers he was being tailed by a UFO, it led to fears that he’d been abducted by creatures not of this planet.

He told them: “It’s not an aircraft…”

Those are the haunting final words that the 20- year- old pilot uttered after he had frantically radioed air traffic control to report he was being buzzed by a shiny metallic object.

Seconds later, all contact was lost. And neither his body, nor his single engine Cessna 182L plane, have ever been recovered.

Around the same time that Valentich was running into trouble off the coast of Melbourne, Australia, local farmer Roy Manifold was stunned to see a mysterious craft rapidly exiting the same waters near the Cape Otway Lighthouse.

He somehow managed to photograph the vehicle as it shot into view – and claims he witnessed a “bona fide unknown flying object”.

Now, more than 40 years after the events of October 1978, Valentich’s vanishing act remains one of the biggest mysteries in aviation history.

And observers are convinced that the explanation has an extra- terrestrial origin.

The events unfolded when Valentich, who was a member of Australia’s Air Training Corps, turned up at Melbourne’s Moorabbin Airport to rent a plane.

He was planning to fly out to King Island, a lump of rock half- way between mainland Australia and Tasmania, which involved a three- hour round trip of 350 miles.

BELIEF: Frederick’s dad Guio thinks his son was abducted

SHOCKING: How papers reported the story

He set off at 6.15pm, heading into good, clear weather conditions. But by 7pm, while flying at an altitude of just over 4,500ft, Valentich suddenly hit difficulties.

He immediayely made contact with Moorabbin Airport, asking them if there were any other planes in his airspace… because he was now coming into contact with one.

A transcript of his frantic conversation was released as part of the investigation into his disappearance.

And in it he warns: “Is there any known traffic below five thousand? I am… seems to be, a large aircraft below five thousand. I cannot affirm what type it is. Er, unknown due to the speed it’s travelling. Is there any Air Force aircraft in the vicinity? It has four bright… it seems to me, like landing lights. The aircraft has just passed over me – at least a thousand feet above.”

Becoming ever more frantic, Valentich went on to claim the mystery craft was HOVERING above him.

He adds: “It’s approaching right 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 a time, at speeds I could not identify.

“Melbourne. It seems like it’s stationary. 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