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The UFO Phenomenon

Pilot vanished during 1978 UFO encounter

By T.K. Randall
July 30, 2018 · Comment icon 24 comments

Could the pilot have been intercepted by a UFO ? Image Credit: sxc.hu
Frederick Valentich disappeared without a trace after encountering a UFO on a flight to King Island, Tasmania.
The 20-year-old Australian, who had rented a single engine plane from Victoria's Moorabbin Airport on October 21st, 1978, had intended to fly to King Island in order to catch seafood.

Everything had been going fine until, at 7pm, he initiated communications with Melbourne Airflight Service Controller Steve Robey to ask if there were any other aircraft in the area.

He reported that he had observed an object zooming past his plane at considerable speed.

Robey replied to state that there was no sign of any other aircraft on radar.
"It is four bright, it seems to me, like landing lights. The aircraft has just passed over me at least a thousand feet above," Valentich insisted. "It seems to me that he's playing some sort of game."

"He's flying over me two, three times, at a time at speeds I could not identify."

The young pilot described the object as long and metallic with a green light on the top. At one point, he reported that it had disappeared from one side of him before reappearing on the other.

"It is hovering and it is not an aircraft," he said.

17 seconds later, the transmission ended and no trace of Valentich or his plane was ever found.

Source: News.com.au | Comments (24)




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Recent comments on this story
Comment icon #15 Posted by psyche101 6 years ago
There was a spectacular meteor shower that night, biggest one of the year. 
Comment icon #16 Posted by L.A.T.1961 6 years ago
From what I can see the Orionid meteor shower may not have been visible until after the incident. Local daylight did not end until 19:18 hrs and then there's Civil Twilight which lasted for about an hour. The radio transmission from Valentich began at 19:06 hrs and lasted until 19:13 hrs approx.  Page from accident report. 
Comment icon #17 Posted by psyche101 6 years ago
That's strange, sunset was about 6:45 on the day and Mt Stromlo Observatory near Canberra also advised the period was “the peak of the meteorite stream with 10-15 sightings per hour achieved”.
Comment icon #18 Posted by psyche101 6 years ago
Comment icon #19 Posted by Gecks 6 years ago
Yeah... mostly sums it up . Ive got to feel for the boys father though. Nicely done on the research by the way !
Comment icon #20 Posted by psyche101 6 years ago
Thanks I agree with you. Can't be a  easy thing to live through 
Comment icon #21 Posted by L.A.T.1961 6 years ago
The Canberra site is about 500 km east of the location Valentich went missing, sunset will be earlier there. 
Comment icon #22 Posted by psyche101 6 years ago
Not by half an hour over 500k. And they still list that time as the peak viewing time for the meteor shower. I'm really not seeing reason to doubt the meteor shower as Valentich's deion. His father is more likely the person who began promoting this as a UFO incident. When I can be bothered to search it out, there was one plane who thinks they saw his plane in the water during the search, but the dark had them abandon the search, and they could not find the same site the next day. There's no doubt he went into the ocean and that a very good meteor shower was happening when he did so. 
Comment icon #23 Posted by L.A.T.1961 6 years ago
Actual sunset/rise times change 1 hour for every 15° move in longitude, although there may be some local differences within time zones. Canberra is about 6° east of the incident site producing a sunset time difference of 24 min. The time stated in the report would be actual sunset time at the location. Start time of the radio message was 19:06 local and sunset was not until 19:18 the sky would have been far too bright to see typical meteors as many are quite faint and need full darkness to spot. The reference to Orionids peak viewing time could just be when the Earth was due to pass through ... [More]
Comment icon #24 Posted by psyche101 6 years ago
Well you seem insistent, so whatever you find more plausible. Be it meteors are horizon disorientation we can say with confidence that he crashed into the ocean, and as he was a very ordinary pilot, highly likely. He was excited as it was his first night flight.  It all means the same in the end, he is dead, he crashed  and there is no reason to invoke aliens. 


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