Declassified documents from the Australian Air Force shed light on the mysterious disappearance of a local pilot along with the plane after meeting with a "flying saucer."
Someone is flying over me
The history of Frederic Valentich is considered one of the most mysterious in the history of aviation. On the evening of October 21, 1978, he rented a plane - a single-engine Cessna 182L - from Moorabbin airfield near Melbourne. The completed flight plan suggested that, after leaving Murabbin, he would proceed to Cape Otway and from there to King Island in the Bass Strait. After landing on the island, he had to return back. Valentich was only 20 years old. For the first time in his life he was to fly over the ocean at night, so the dispatchers insisted on the "constant communication" mode. The pilot had to report on the passage of the checkpoints of the route, periodically reporting that everything was in order.
Cover of documents declassified in Australia
The plane took off at 18.19. At 19.00 Valentich reported to the dispatcher Stephen Robie that he had passed Cape Otway. The sun had set 12 minutes ago, but it was still light enough to distinguish land from water.
Six minutes later, he got back in touch. Here is a transcript of the negotiations with the dispatcher (without callsigns and service words "understand you", "reception", etc.)
Promotional video:
06/19/14 Valentich: Melbourne, are there any planes below five thousand? (5000 feet, about 1500 m - M. G.)
06/19/23 Roby: No known aircraft.
06/19/26 Valentich: Looks like there is a big plane below five thousand.
06/19/46 Roby: What type of aircraft?
06/19/50 Valentich: I can't determine. Four bright … that seem to be landing lights.
07/19/32 Valentich: The plane just flew over me at least a thousand feet higher.
07/19/43 Roby: Is this a big plane?
07/19/47 Valentich: I don't know, but because of the speed at which he moves … is there any air force aircraft nearby?
07/19/57 Roby: No known aircraft nearby.
08/19/18 Valentich: He is now approaching me from the east.
08/19/49 Valentich: It seems to me that he is playing a kind of game. It flew over me two or three times at a speed that I cannot determine.
09.19.02 Roby: How high are you?
09/19/06 Valentich: Four and a half thousand, four, five, zero, zero.
09/19/11 Roby: Confirm, you can't identify the plane?
09/19/14 Valentich: I confirm.
09/19/18 Robie: Stay connected.
09/19/28 Valentich: This is not an airplane … this is …
09/19/46 Roby: Can you describe the plane?
09/19/52 Valentich: When it flies by, it has an elongated shape … I can't say anything else … It has such a speed … Melbourne, it is right now in front of me.
10.19.07 Roby: And how big is the object?
2020-19-10 Valentich: He seems to be (unintelligible, most likely "haunting me"). I am now flying in a circle, and the object is also flying in a circle above me … It has a green light and a metallic-looking … shiny body.
10/19/48 Valentich: He just disappeared.
11.19.03 Valentich: Do you know what kind of plane I saw? Is this a military plane?
11/19/08 Roby: Confirm that the plane has just disappeared.
11/19/14 Valentich: I confirm.
11/19/17 Roby: Is the plane still there?
11/19/23 Valentich: He … is approaching from the southwest.
11/19/52 Valentich: The engine does not work well … Coughs.
12.19.04 Roby: What are your intentions?
12/19/09 Valentich: I'm going to fly to King Island. The strange plane hovered over me again … it hovered, and this is not a plane …
At 19.12.28, air traffic controllers heard a metallic clang. It lasted 17 seconds and resembled "the sound of empty Coca-Cola cans being shaken in a bag." After that Valentich no longer contacted. Disappeared.
Valentich route
Many have seen strange objects in the sky
Air traffic controllers immediately began searching for the missing plane. The Cessna 182L was equipped with a water landing cover and a radio beacon, but no one heard its callsigns. An Australian Air Force Orion aircraft circled Valentich's intended flight route and saw a large slick of fuel 18 miles north of King Island. Rescue ships carefully searched the area of the slick, but found nothing else. Water samples showed that diesel, not jet fuel was floating there.
Federic - the disappeared pilot
The press reported almost immediately that a UFO was to blame for the pilot's disappearance. Dozens of people started calling journalists, ufologists and the military. They said that that day, too, they observed strange objects in the sky.
“It's interesting that everyone started calling and talking about UFOs only after the press reported about Valentich's disappearance,” commented Ken Williams of the Department of Transportation. “It seems like people are starting to think they saw strange lights too. We don't take their calls too seriously, but we don't refuse to listen."
At the disposal of the military, interrogators and ufologists were 29 messages and even two photographs. At 18.45, 21 minutes before Valentine's meeting with the "plate", a certain Roy Manifold was relaxing on the beach near Cape Otway. I decided to take pictures of the ocean with the setting sun as a souvenir and snapped the camera six times. Manifold didn't see anything like that during the shoot, but when developing on two frames, strange details appeared. The fourth image shows a "black lump" crawling out of the water, the fifth - the usual picture of the setting sun, and in the 6th frame an object is visible located in the sky above the place where there were "blocks" from the shot about 40 seconds earlier. th frame. Kodak rejected the possibility of a film defect or development error.
Frederick's father believed that his son was abducted by aliens
The Australian Air Force has suggested that the image is a normal cloud. But considering that between frames 5 and 6 it took about 20 seconds to get so far in the frame, the "cloud" had to fly at a speed of more than 300 kilometers per hour!
On October 25, the authorities stopped searching for the plane. Much to the chagrin of Valentich's father and his girlfriend, 17-year-old Rhonda Rushton.
“I know Fred is alive and we’ll see him soon,” Rhonda announced two days later.
“My son has been kidnapped by aliens,” Guido said. “I'm not sure they'll get him back. I hope and pray to be returned.
Valentich's girlfriend believed that Frederick was with aliens. And soon it will be returned
Valentich worried that UFOs might attack him
The Ministry of Transport and the Australian Air Force declassified a dossier relating to the disappearance of Frederic Valentich only after the death of his father.
Not the best image of a 20-year-old pilot was formed from the documents. He was a novice with only 160 hours of flying practice. After school, he enrolled in the Flight Training Corps, a youth program that trains future Australian Air Force pilots. Frederick passed it, but he never got into the Air Force cadets. In his dossier they wrote: "Very poor results, extremely low IQ, suitable only for unskilled work on the ground."
Journalists willingly supported the version that Valentich was abducted by aliens
Valentich tried once again to break into military pilots. He came to the Flight Training Corps as a volunteer counselor to help other newcomers. But even this did not soften the hearts of the military.
Then Valentich decided to obtain a private pilot's license and subsequently become a civil aviation pilot. With incredible difficulty, retaking the exams several times, the young man received the 4th class license, which allows piloting at night in simple meteorological conditions. Then the matter stalled. Three attempts to obtain a pilot's license have failed.
Friends, relatives and acquaintances of Valentich did not suspect that things were so bad. Frederic told everyone that he was successfully passing the exams. One of his acquaintances, pilot Roy Barnes, wrote to the Department of Transportation interrogator: “I was extremely disappointed when I heard from you that Frederick did not pass the exams, because when I returned from vacation in mid-September, he called and boasted that everything passed. Was he a good actor or a split personality?"
On the evening of his disappearance, October 21, Valentich lied at least three times. At the airport, he said he was going to pick up friends from King Island and put three extra life jackets in the cockpit. He told his family that he ordered crabs there. Both turned out to be untrue. In addition, there was no radio station or air traffic control service at the island's airfield. A pilot wishing to land in the dark had to call in advance and ask him to turn on the runway lighting. Valentich did not warn about the visit, which proves that he did not intend to land on the island. To his girlfriend - Rhonda - he said that he would drive up to her at 19.50 - a time impossible with the planned flight.
The senior dispatcher of the transport service told the investigators that Valentich was that evening far from the place of the meeting with the UFO indicated by him. Although the Otway area is within the radar range, “the operators on duty during the pilot’s dramatic UFO sighting report were unable to locate the Cessna 182L.” Although the conditions for the passage of radio waves were exceptionally good. We seriously doubt that his plane was anywhere near Cape Otway."
UFO photographed by Manifold near Cape Otway
The skepticism of the interrogators intensified when they found out that Valentich was fond of ufology, collected clippings about observations of "flying saucers" and did not miss a single film about aliens. Guido said that his son "was worried that UFOs might attack him, and thought that in this case it can be done."
Rhonda Rushton clarified a couple of obscure details to the interrogators. She said that she flew with Valentich a couple of times. He had a bad habit of not hanging the microphone of the radio, but throwing it on his lap. From an unsuccessful movement, the button could turn into gear. When Fred's legs got numb, he would stretch them out and push the seat back. The metallic clang at the end of the last transmission, in her opinion, was caused by the sounds of the seat driving back when the microphone was accidentally turned on.
A fatal hoax?
Dr. Mahoney, a "human factors specialist in aviation medicine," concluded that Valentich could have tried to drown the plane and swim to shore or hide somewhere, then suddenly show up and tell about his abduction. Interruptions in the operation of the Cessna engine are easy to fake - for this you need to make an appropriate maneuver. But something went wrong.
The Ministry of Transport decided not to press charges against the deceased pilot so as not to injure his family and friends. The final conclusion read: "The reason for the disappearance of the aircraft has not been established."
In 1982, waves washed up on the coast of Flinders Island, near Tasmania, a piece of the fairing of a Cessna 182L. The tail number was not completely preserved, but the numbers that survived coincided with the number of Valentich's plane. Re-investigation did not find any other Cessna aircraft with such numbers that disappeared or crashed in the ocean.
In 1988, Valentich was officially declared dead. His father was finally able to take the money that was in his son's bank account. Rhonda Rushton never married after the disappearance of the groom.
“I believe it was taken by a UFO,” Rhonda said 11 years later. - Fred and I often discussed this topic. Once he said: if he meets a UFO, he knows what to do. These words helped me a lot when Fred disappeared. His voice was not frightened when he met the object: perhaps he regarded it all as an adventure."
Valentine's plane wreck
Ufologists James McGaha and Joe Nickell suggested that Valentich lied about the purpose of his flight, because he was going to "hunt" a UFO. Perhaps he found out about their activity in the Bass Strait region, deciding to personally fly and see. He expected to meet a UFO, and therefore was not frightened. Inexperience played a cruel joke on him - Valentich got distracted from control and fell into a tailspin. The engine began to run intermittently because the Cessna was in a position where gravity stopped fuel flow. When the pilot realized the situation, the plane managed to descend below the level of reliable radio reception. The dispatchers did not hear Valentich. After a few seconds of agonizing terror, he crashed into the water.
We will never know exactly what happened in the sky that evening over the Bass Strait. Declassified documents only allow one to come to the conclusion that UFOs became an indirect cause of the pilot's death. Or even have nothing to do with the tragedy that played out in the ocean almost 40 years ago.
Mikhail GERSHTEIN
