Frederick Valentich, 21 October 1978: "It's Not an Aircraft"
A 20-year-old pilot flying a Cessna over Bass Strait told Melbourne air traffic control that a large craft was flying above him. Then the radio went to a metallic noise and he was gone. The Department of Transport's file, now public, could not find a cause.
Sources Department of Transport (Australia), Aircraft Accident Investigation Summary Report V116/783/1047 (1982); National Archives of Australia file series on the Valentich case; Wikipedia, 'Disappearance of Frederick Valentich'
At 6:19 p.m. on 21 October 1978, Frederick Valentich, 20, took off from Moorabbin, south of Melbourne, in a rented Cessna 182 bound for King Island across Bass Strait. At 7:06 he asked Melbourne Flight Service whether there was other traffic below 5,000 feet. There was none.
Six minutes
Over the next six minutes Valentich described a large object with four bright lights that seemed to be playing with him, passing overhead and orbiting. “It’s not an aircraft,” he said. He reported his engine running rough. His last words were cut off by about 17 seconds of metallic, scraping noise. He was never found.
The file
A large air and sea search found nothing. The Department of Transport’s summary report, released in 1982, said the reason for the disappearance had not been determined. The case file, including the transcript, is held by the National Archives of Australia. Skeptics have suggested that Valentich, an inexperienced night flyer, became disoriented and mistook stars or his own reflections for a craft; others think he may have staged it. None is proven.
Ledger status
Marked open. The official investigation reached no cause. Map position is the middle of Bass Strait.
Sources
- National Archives of Australia, RecordSearch, Valentich file — recordsearch.naa.gov.au
- Wikipedia, “Disappearance of Frederick Valentich” — en.wikipedia.org
Part of the World Ledger, batch 1. Original text; no images are used.
Evidence ledger
Each claim in this file, the source it rests on, and how well it holds up: 3 corroborated · 1 disputed. What the labels mean.
| Claim | Source | Type · date | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Frederick Valentich disappeared over Bass Strait in a Cessna 182 on 21 Oct 1978. | Department of Transport report (1982); NAA | official · 1982 | corroborated |
| He told Melbourne Flight Service that an unknown aircraft with lights was above him; the last transmission ended in a metallic noise. | Transcript in DoT report | primary record · 1978 | corroborated |
| No wreckage was found; the investigation could not determine the cause.An engine cowl flap found in 1983 was reportedly not conclusively identified. | DoT report (1982) | official · 1982 | corroborated |
| He was disoriented and saw his own lights reflected while inverted, or staged his disappearance. | Skeptical proposals | secondary | disputed |
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