{"it":{"id":"UFO-VAL1978","name":"Frederick Valentich disappearance","kind":"ufo","sub":"Historical sighting","place":"Bass Strait, off Cape Otway, Victoria, Australia","lat":-39.4,"lon":143.75,"date":"1978-10-21 19:12 AEST","rep":"A metallic craft with a green light.","off":"Department of Transport: cause undetermined; suggestions include disorientation or a graveyard spiral.","src":[{"t":"Wikipedia: Disappearance of Frederick Valentich","u":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disappearance_of_Frederick_Valentich"}],"tags":["Sightings"],"sum":"On 21 October 1978, 20-year-old Frederick Valentich radioed over Bass Strait that something was following him: 'It's not an aircraft.' Minutes later he and his Cessna 182L disappeared.","nsrc":1,"new":1,"qs":["A pilot said 'It's not an aircraft' and vanished minutes later. Was he disoriented, or did he describe exactly what he saw?","Valentich was an avowed UFO believer. Should that make us doubt his last words, or is that an easy way to dismiss them?","Over 1,000 square miles searched and only a cowl flap, five years later. What does 'cause undetermined' really mean to his family?"],"yt":"Read the recorded radio exchange and test the graveyard-spiral hypothesis against it.","rel":["UFO-KIN1953"],"hook":"On 21 October 1978 a 20-year-old pilot radioed 'it's not an aircraft' and vanished.","why":"A 20-year-old pilot radioed 'it's not an aircraft' over Bass Strait in 1978 and vanished; officials never found a cause."},"S":{},"rec":{"id":"UFO-VAL1978","sum":"On 21 October 1978, Frederick Valentich, a 20-year-old private pilot, flew a Cessna 182L, VH-DSJ, out of Moorabbin, near Melbourne, at 1819 hours, bound for King Island across Bass Strait.\n\nThe Australian Department of Transport's accident summary report sets out what followed. He reported over Cape Otway at 1900. From 1906 he told Melbourne Flight Service that a large aircraft was near him below five thousand feet, then that it had a green light and was \"all shiny\" and metallic on the outside, and that it was orbiting on top of him.\n\nWhat is hard to explain is how the transmissions end. At 1912 he reported the engine rough idling. His last words included \"it is hovering and it's not an aircraft\", followed by 17 seconds of open microphone, and nothing more was heard. The weather was clear with excellent visibility. A sea, air and land search ran until 25 October and found no trace.\n\nThe report's opinion as to cause is one line: \"The reason for the disappearance of the aircraft has not been determined.\" A later letter in the same file reports an engine cowl flap from a Cessna 182 found on Flinders Island in 1985 and asks whether it could have drifted from the area; the file does not settle it. Sceptics suggest he became disoriented; others take his words as a plain description of a UFO.\n\nWas the pilot describing exactly what he saw, or losing track of where he was?","qs":["A pilot said 'it's not an aircraft' and vanished. Was he disoriented, or did he describe exactly what he saw?","The official report gives no cause. What does 'not determined' really mean?","Searchers found no trace. How can an aircraft vanish so completely?"],"gal":[],"ms":[],"aa":[],"ac":[],"src":[{"t":"Wikipedia: Disappearance of Frederick Valentich","u":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disappearance_of_Frederick_Valentich"},{"id":"VUFO-VAL1978-2","t":"National Archives of Australia UFO files, B1497 V116/783/1047 (Internet Archive text)","u":"https://archive.org/stream/AustralianUFOFiles/B1497_V116-783-1047_10491375_djvu.txt"}],"pts":[{"p":"Cessna 182L VH-DSJ; radioed at 7:06 pm that an aircraft was following at 4,500 ft.","g":"SINGLE SOURCE","b":"S","t":"Wikipedia: Disappearance of Frederick Valentich","u":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disappearance_of_Frederick_Valentich"},{"p":"Valentich (20) had about 150 flying hours.","g":"SINGLE SOURCE","b":"S","t":"Wikipedia: Disappearance of Frederick Valentich","u":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disappearance_of_Frederick_Valentich"},{"p":"Search covered more than 1,000 sq mi; ended 25 Oct 1978.","g":"SINGLE SOURCE","b":"S","t":"Wikipedia: Disappearance of Frederick Valentich","u":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disappearance_of_Frederick_Valentich"},{"p":"A Cessna 182 cowl flap washed up on Flinders Island five years later.","g":"SINGLE SOURCE","b":"S","t":"Wikipedia: Disappearance of Frederick Valentich","u":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disappearance_of_Frederick_Valentich"}]},"img":null,"md":{"h":"img/m/UFO-VAL1978-16x9.webp","w":1600,"hh":900,"alt":"Frederick Valentich disappearance, Bass Strait, off Cape Otway, Victoria, Australia — Cape Otway Lighthouse, Cape Otway, Victoria, Australia","by":"Dietmar Rabich","lic":"CC BY-SA 4.0","lu":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0","p":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Cape_Otway_(AU),_Cape_Otway_Lighthouse_--_2019_--_1230.jpg","g":false,"ct":false,"cap":"","sec":[]},"hh":null,"hs":{}}