Although Fred Valentich went missing nearly 40 years ago, his disappearance still rattles the minds of UFO hunters.
In 1978, 20-year-old pilot Frederic Valentich went missing. He attempted a training flight in a light Cessna 182L aircraft over the Bass Strait between Australia and Tasmania. At that time, Valentich was a fairly experienced pilot, who had already flown about 150 hours. On the evening of October 21, he took off from Moorabbin Airport towards King Island, intending to travel 200 km over Bass Strait.
At 19:06 Valentich reported to Melbourne that he had noticed an unknown plane following him at an altitude of 1.5 km, but the dispatcher replied that there were no objects nearby. The pilot continued to insist that next to him a plane with four bright landing lights, and then added that it flew over him at high speed. For the next five minutes, Valentich reported on the movements of the plane, which allegedly "revolves around him." In addition, the pilot described the aircraft as shiny and metallic in appearance and emitting green light.
Soon Fred Valentich reported that he had problems with the engine. And then he said the phrase "this is not an airplane", and the connection was interrupted. The last sound the dispatcher heard was a scraping sound on metal.
The Melbourne Flight Service suggested that Valentich had crashed, but further searches for him yielded nothing. In the end, the pilot was pronounced dead and the case was closed.
Valentich route map
But the matter was far from over. Five years after Valentich went missing on the coast of Flinders Island, the engine hood flap was thrown out. Experts noted that this is part of the same plane that Valentich flew on. Not only that, it had serial numbers in the same range as Valentich's plane.
Added fuel to the fire and the statement of Guido Valentich, Fred's father, who said that his son believed in the existence of UFOs and most of all feared that they might attack him. It also turned out that Valentich twice tried to join the Australian Air Force, and both times he was refused due to lack of experience. He studied to be a commercial pilot, but failed his exams twice. Valentich also received several warnings, having flown once into the restricted area over Sydney and twice into the clouds.
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Ufologists immediately seized on this case, saying that the pilot was abducted by aliens. They argued that there was eyewitness accounts of green lights at that time and in the region where Valentich flew. The disappearance of the young pilot has been the subject of debate among conspiracy theorists for almost 40 years, although no new (valuable and reliable) information has yet been collected.
Newspaper article about Valentich's disappearance
Despite the fact that ufologists insist on alien abduction, there is no real explanation for the disappearance of Valentich, which means that the mystery continues to remain unsolved.
