HISTORICAL

Frederick Valentich disappearance — Pilot Frederick Valentich vanished over Bass Strait while reporting to air traffic control that an unidentified craft was hovering over his Cessna 182. Neither pilot nor aircraft was ever found.

On the evening of October 21, 1978, twenty-year-old Australian pilot Frederick Valentich vanished without trace during a solo training flight from Moorabbin Airport in Melbourne to King Island in Bass Strait. His final radio transmissions described an unknown aircraft hovering above his Cessna 182, and the case remains one of aviation history's most enigmatic disappearances. 【Background】 Valentich was an experienced student pilot training for a commercial licence, with around 150 hours total flight time. He filed a routine flight plan for the 235-kilometre night crossing over Bass Strait. Weather conditions were good, with calm winds and clear visibility. He took off shortly after 6:19 p.m. 【The Encounter】 At 7:06 p.m., Valentich radioed Melbourne Flight Service reporting a large unknown aircraft passing about 1,000 feet above him and moving rapidly. Over the next six minutes, in transmissions logged by Flight Service Officer Steve Robey, Valentich described the object as having a long shape, a green light, a shiny metallic surface, and an ability to orbit his plane. His final words — "It is hovering and it's not an aircraft" — were followed by seventeen seconds of a metallic scraping sound, then silence. 【Investigation】 An extensive air-and-sea search lasting four days covered over 1,000 square nautical miles but recovered no debris, no oil slick, and no body. The Department of Transport investigation concluded the cause was "not determined" but presumed fatal. Researchers have proposed several theories: spatial disorientation causing Valentich to fly inverted and mistake his own lights as a hovering craft; suicide; faked disappearance; or genuine encounter with an unknown craft. 【Modern Assessment】 A 1983 study of weather radar showed no unusual atmospheric returns. In 1982, a piece of aircraft cowling washed ashore near Flinders Island and was tentatively linked to the Cessna, though never conclusively identified. The disappearance has been repeatedly investigated by Australian skeptics and UFO researchers alike, and the original transmission tapes remain publicly available in the National Archives of Australia. Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disappearance_of_Frederick_Valentich

-38.7170°, 144.7000°

Source: Wikipedia