Pilot who reported UFO sends chilling final message before disappearing
A pilot that disappeared almost 50 years ago left a creepy final transmission before vanishing off the face of the Earth.
The incident occurred on 21 October 1978, as 20-year-old pilot Frederick Valentich was flying a Cessna 182L light aircraft from Moorabbin Airport in southern Melbourne, Australia, to King Island when he disappeared an hour into his journey.
Valentich informed air traffic control that he was accompanied by a fellow aircraft roughly 1,000ft above him and his engine was running roughly.
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His chilling final transmission is sure to send shivers down your spine though.
The young pilot was making his way over the Bass Strait Triangle, an area of sea between Victoria and Tasmania, infamous for ships and planes vanishing in.
More or less an Australian 'Bermuda triangle', people have theorised what may have happened, over the years.
Where was he going and who was he?
We know that he was heading for King Island, but why?
Valentich racked up around 150 hours of flying time, but was rejected from the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) twice due to his lack of qualifications, despite being part of the RAAF Air Training Corps.
He was also studying to become a commercial pilot, but failed all his commercial licence exams several times, despite being desperate to have a career in the industry.
The 20-year-old had a record of reckless flying too, being warned after flying into a controlled zone and into clouds on numerous occasions.
It is still unknown why he undertook the journey to King Island that evening, as he told friends and air officials different stories.
What happened, exactly?
He radioed Melbourne Flight Service to inform them that an unidentified aircraft was following him at 4,500ft, but they responded by telling him that there was no recognised traffic at that height.
Valentich said he saw a large aircraft with four bright landing lights with a shiny metal surface and a green light.
The craft passed 1,000ft above him, when he revealed that he was experiencing engine problems.
Flight Service asked him to identify the plane, and he replied: "It's not an aircraft."
The final radio from his plane was described as a 'metallic scratching'.
The search
Authorities launched a sea and air search, with shipping traffic, a RAAF plane and eight civilian aircraft searching an area of more than 1,000 square miles.
After four days, the search was halted as nothing was found, though in 1983, an engine cowl flap washed ashore on Flinders Island.
Upon closer inspection, The Bureau of Air Safety Investigation concluded that 'the part has been identified as having come from a Cessna 182 aircraft between a certain range of serial numbers', meaning there is a possibility that it could have been Valentich's.
What are the potential causes of his disappearance?
Faking his own death
Many conspiracies have flown around since the incident, from the pilot staging his own disappearance, as police received reports of a light aircraft landing not far from Cape Otway, just 45 minutes from his start point, around the time he 'disappeared'.
Accidental crash
He could also have been disorientated while flying upside down, as the lights he saw may have been his own lights reflected in the sea before tragically crashing.
However, the type of plane he was flying had a gravity feed fuel system, as flying upside down for long periods of time in the Cessna would have caused the engine to die.
Possible suicide
Doctors and colleagues close to him have ruled this out, despite the possibility.
In 2013, it was suggested that he was deceived by a tilted horizon 'illusion'.
When he tried to correct this, it sent the plane into a spiral to his death.
The G-force caused by this tight spiral would have caused engine problems as fuel flow would have dropped, according to retired United States Air Force pilot James McGaha and author Joe Nickell.
Aliens
That's right, the big whopper.
Ufologists speculated that he was destroyed or abducted by a UFO, as reports on the day said there was an off green light moving erratically in the sky.
UFO group Ground Saucer Watch claims that pictures taken on the day show an object moving swiftly through the air near the Cape Otway Lighthouse.
Jerome Clark, a UFO Writer for Ground Saucer Watch claimed that there was ‘a bona fide unknown flying object, of moderate dimensions, apparently surrounded by a cloud-like vapour/exhaust residue’, but photos were not clear enough to back these claims up.
Joshua Nair