Ep 199: The Disappearance of Frederick Valentich Part 1
“It is hovering and it’s not an aircraft.”
– The last known words of pilot Frederich Valentich at 7:12 p.m., somewhere over the Bass Strait in Australia, October 21, 1978
Description:
On Saturday, October 21, 1978, at 6:19 p.m., 20-year-old Frederick Valentich took off from Moorabbin Airport just south of Melbourne, Australia, for what was supposed to be a routine training and pleasure flight over Bass Strait to King Island. A serious student aviator, Valentich had been flying for two years and had accumulated over 150 hours of solo flying time in his goal to one day become a commercial airline pilot. Although rated for night flying by instrument, the sun was still up, and with clear visibility and good weather, there was no reason Valentich shouldn’t have easily completed this trip, which he’d taken several times before. However, just over halfway through the flight at 7:06 p.m., Valentich contacted Melbourne Flight Service Unit and reported seeing an unidentified craft above him, traveling at high speed and shining four bright lights. Valentich would radio back a few minutes later that it didn’t appear to be any known aircraft, and now it had even more unusual characteristics: it was long, shiny metallic, and a green light was emanating from it. Even more unsettling, this craft he described was deliberately toying with him as it orbited above while his plane’s engine was sputtering. At 7:11 p.m., the last statement anyone would hear from Valentich would be that the object was still hovering and that it was not an aircraft. Valentich and his plane had vanished at that moment, but whether it was an elaborate hoax, a deliberate crash, or merely a misidentification combined with a mechanical failure, no investigation has been able to determine. What is not in doubt is that the case of Frederick Valentich remains one of Australia’s biggest aviation mysteries, if not in all of UFO lore.
Location:
Moorabbin Airport, where Frederick Valentich took off from on October 21, 1978, headed for King Island across Bass Strait.
Reference Links:
The Frederick Valentich case on the original Unsolved Mysteries, Season 5, Episode 2 on Amazon Prime
“Last Light: the Valentich Mystery” from The History Listen with Kirsti Melville on ABC.net.au
“Valentich Case Files Finally Released” by Kandinsky on AboveTopSecret.com
“The Valentich Abduction/Disappearance: 40th Anniversary” by MirageMan on AboveTopSecret.com
Complete episode on the Valentich disappearance from The Unexplained Files on the Discovery Channel
Valentich’s missing aircraft report online, from the National Archives of Australia
“Biography of Bette Nesmith Graham, Inventor of Liquid Paper” on ThoughtCo.com
“What C.S. Lewis and Martin Luther Would Say About Our Coronavirus Panic”
“Plague was one of history’s deadliest diseases—then we found a cure” on NationalGeographic.com
Related Books:
Suggested Listening:
Check out our good friend Gledders’ paranormal podcast, ANOMALY, where he, his co-host Steve Freestone, and Forrest discuss some of the more weird and wild events of 2020 and more in his latest 2-part series. Click here to subscribe and listen on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, the website at anomaly.co.uk, or anywhere excellent podcasts are found.
And then after that, check out Gledders’ “80’s Mix Tape” for the best in 1980s music, Saturdays, 6:00 to 8:00 p.m. in the UK, or stream anytime at Huntingdon Community Radio HCR 104 FM!
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Credits:
Episode 199: The Disappearance of Frederick Valentich Part 1. Produced by Scott Philbrook & Forrest Burgess; Audio Editing by Sarah Vorhees Wendel. Sound Design by Ryan McCullough; Tess Pfeifle, Producer, and Lead Researcher; Research Support from the astonishing League of Astonishing Researchers, a.k.a. The Astonishing Research Corps, or "A.R.C." for short. Copyright 2021 Astonishing Legends Productions, LLC. All Rights Reserved.