The case sounds like an urban legend about the Bermuda Triangle; however, it's a well documented disappearance that left authorities puzzled.
On 21 October 1978, a clear day with no wind and perfect visibility, 20-year-old Frederick Valentich disappeared while flying a Cessna 182L light aircraft over Bass Strait. He was an experienced pilot, with a class four instrument rating and over 150 hours of air time. He planned to land at King Island, pick up some crayfish and return to Moorabbin Airport in time to attend a family reunion.
A search and rescue mission was sent out only minutes after Frederick's plane disappeared from radar, however no trace was found.
Weird stuff
• Cessena aircrafts are meant to stay afloat for up to an hour after crashing in water, but the plane was not found.
• Frederick had four life vests on board but didn’t seem to try getting out of the plane.
• The radio beacon he had on board didn’t activate.
Other weird stuff
• To begin with although he did submit a flight plan, Frederick didn't file it with King Island; unusual, given he aspired to become a commercial pilot.
• Police found no one who had arranged to sell crayfish to Frederick (and that was his whole rason for flying that day).
• While the six-minute transcript is available, the original audio has never been made available to the media or the general public.
• Not long after his disappearance, Frederick's mother contacted the late French marine explorer, Jacques Cousteau, to enlist his help in the search for the aircraft's wreckage. Reports from the time claim Cousteau agreed to help but was denied permission by authorities.
The weirdest stuff
During the 235 kilometre flight, Frederick advised Melbourne air traffic control he was being accompanied by an aircraft about 300 metres above him. At first, he described it as long but travelling too fast to describe in more detail. Shortly after, he said the aircraft was ‘orbiting’ above him and that it had a shiny metal surface and a green light on it. He then reported that his engine had started running roughly and finally reported, before disappearing from radar, that: ‘That strange aircraft is hovering on top of me again. It is hovering and it's not an aircraft.’ The last thing traffic control heard were metallic scraping sounds.
That night, there were a number of UFO sightings reported by the Australian public. Among the accounts given were 20 in which people claimed to have seen ‘an erratically moving green light in the sky’ and, in one instance, a witness two kilometres west of Apollo Bay, said that they saw a green light trailing or shadowing Frederick's plane, and that his plane was in a steep dive at the time.
Ufologists say these accounts are especially significant as most were recorded several years before the 1982 release of transcripts in which Frederick described the object above him as having a green light.
Ken Williams, a spokesman for the Department of Transport, told the Associated Press that ‘it's funny all these people ringing up with UFO reports well after Valentich's disappearance.’
So, did Frederick suffer some sort of stroke and start seeing things, in which case why couldn’t his plane be found? Did he stage his own disappearance? Did he commit suicide? Was he killed by drug smugglers? Or was he abducted, plane and all, by little green men?
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