Wednesday, March 27, 2013

Wednesday Weird: The Valentich Disappearance

Okay, so pretty much we can all agree that boats and planes disappear in the ocean all the time. And we're not even talking about the Bermuda Triangle. We're just talking about the regular old ocean.

So we're not shocked to learn that on October 21, 1978, a Cessna 182 light aircraft piloted by Australian Frederick Valentich vanished. That happens all the time. Sometimes we know what caused their disappearance, sometimes we don't.

This one is a bit of both, because we have Valentich's final transmissions, where Valentich described being followed by a UFO:

1906 hours
Valentich: Melbourne, this is Delta Sierra Juliet. Is there any known traffic below five thousand?
Melbourne: No known traffic.
Valentich: I am... seems to be a large aircraft below five thousand.
Melbourne: What type of aircraft is it?
Valentich: I cannot affirm. It is four bright... it seems to me like landing lights.

1907 hours
Valentich: Melbourne, this is Delta Sierra Juliet. The aircraft has just passed over me at least a thousand feet above...
Melbourne: Roger.. and it... it is a large aircraft? Confirm.
Valentich: ... er unknown due to the speed it's travelling. Is there any airforce aircraft in the vicinity?
Melbourne: No known aircraft in the vicinity.

1908 hours
Valentich: Melbourne, it's approaching now from due east towards me...
Valentich: (open microphone for two seconds)
Valentich:...it seems to me that he's playing some sort of game... he's flying over me two... three times at speeds I could not identify...


1909 hours
Melbourne: ... roger... what is your actual level?
Valentich: My level is four and a half thousand four five zero zero...
Melbourne: ... and confirm you cannot identify the aircraft...
Valentich: ... affirmative.
Melbourne: roger... stand by...
Valentich: ... it's not an aircraft it is... (open microphone for two seconds)
Melbourne: ... can you describe the... er... aircraft?
Valentich: ... as it's flying past it's a long shape... (open microphone for three seconds)... cannot identify more than that... it has such speed... (open microphone for three seconds)... before me right now Melbourne...

1910 hours
Melbourne: ...roger... and how large would the... er... object be?
Valentich: ... 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, its got a green light and sort of metallic like... it's all shiny on the outside...
Valentich: (open microphone for five seconds)... it's just vanished...


1911 hours
Valentich: Melbourne, would you know what kind of aircraft I've got? Is it military aircraft?
Melbourne: ...confirm the... er... aircraft just vanished...
Valentich: ... say again?
Melbourne: ... is the aircraft still with you?
Valentich: ... approaching from the south-west...
Valentich: ... the engine is rough idling... I've got it set at twenty three twenty four and the thing is...


1912 hours
Melbourne: ... roger... what are your intentions...
Valentich: ... my intentions are... ah... to go to King Island... ah... Melbourne that strange aircraft is hovering on top of me again... (two seconds open microphone)... it is hovering and it's not an aircraft...
Valentich: ... (17 seconds open microphone)...


Those were Valentich's last words. What followed were 17 seconds of a metallic scraping sound. No trace of Valentich or his plane were ever found. He was close enough to land for a lot of eyewitnesses to say they saw the EXACT same UFO. The only issue with that is, no one came forward until after the story was released in papers, so we pretty much have to rule all of those eyewitnesses out, whether they're telling the truth or not. He was also close enough to land that if he crashed, it may not have even been in the ocean.

The DOT had two experts examine the 17 seconds of metallic scraping taped at the end of the transmission. They couldn't conclude anything.

Some people have suggested Valentich became disoriented and was actually flying upside down the entire time. The lights he saw being his own in the reflection of the ocean. Which could be a possibility, but that becomes less believable if you actually believe what he said in the transmission, that the aircraft was circling him and going faster than him. If he was seeing his own lights, they would be matching his speed and not moving outside his own path.

So, there's no solution to what happened to Frederick Valentich and we'll probably never know for sure unless they somehow find his aircraft one day.

Thoughts?
 

12 comments:

Alex J. Cavanaugh said...

Very freaky! Like the craft seized him at the end and tool him with it. One of those things we'll never know, although I don't believe he was flying upside down.

Jay Noel said...

Investigators found the huge file on this case - pieces of his plane were witnessed by those in the area five years later. One pilot saw what he identified as a huge piece of a Cessna in the "correct" spot, but it sank.

Also, Valentich had lied about the reason for him flying at night to King Island. He told the tower that he was picking up passengers and would fly back home. And then he told family members that he was picking up crayfish.

Apparently, there were no passengers waiting for him, and crayfish wasn't available that time of year.

That night he disappeared was peak season for meteors.

Valentich, according to an investigation, was a staunch UFO believer, along with his parents. He even talked to his father about what he would do if a UFO attacked his plane.

Rena said...

Eeep! Okay, so he might have been lying, and he believed in UFOs, but does that mean it really wasn't a UFO that possibly took him?

Crashes on an open mic are pretty easy to confirm, so what was that sound? part of a hoax? Except, the transmission doesn't sound totally faked.

A very interesting case, this one...

mshatch said...

Even if he did believe in UFOs it still doesn't explain his disappearance. I wonder if they had his voice analyzed and if it's possible to tell whether he believed what he was saying or lying purposely? Not sure if that's possible but... it is still an interesting and weird story!

Michael Offutt, Phantom Reader said...

He crashed in the ocean. Probably suffered a brain aneurysm. I heard it disorients like that.

Matthew MacNish said...

Clearly an abduction.

Unknown said...

Soviets. If it's in the air and it's a bit weird, blame the Soviets. Works everytime ;)

Jamie

Anne Gallagher said...

I've got goosebumps. Poor man. Imagine meeting your death at the hands of a UFO?

Maria Zannini said...

Poor guy. No matter what happened, it was a terrible way to die.

DL Hammons said...

Man....I LOVE this stuff!! :)

JYW said...

First off, it was flying, we don't know what it is. It is, by definition a UFO. If it was alien in origin is a whole other question.

As for the thing itself, what does it leave if it is not an aircraft? Anyone who says "UFO" or "Aliens" is still assuming aircraft, but he distinctly says it is not and aircraft.

So, if you're asking for rampant spec, what if it wasn't a machine, but what if it was a living thing, able to move as he describes, large enough to destroy his plain, and bioluminescent in ways that made him think there were lights on it?

Do I think that's what it was? No idea. Not enough information to draw any conclusions. But the thing people seem to ignoring is his insistence that it was not an aircraft, presumably of any kind, terrestrial or alien. That doesn't leave much else besides something comprised purely of energy or something organic.

Keith Basterfield said...

Hi all,

As the Australian researcher who found the Australian Government air accident investigation file on this event, I invite you to read my recent blog post at

http://ufos-scientificresearch.blogspot.com.au/2013/09/valentich-disappearance-rhonda-rushton.html

Keith Basterfield
keithbasterfield@yahoo.com.au

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