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15| fred valentich

fred valentich disappeared in 1978 from the plane he was flying, and his disappearance remains unexplained to this day. he had been attempting a training flight over the bass strait between the australian mainland and tasmania. he was a moderately experienced pilot and had roughly 150 hours of flight time.

on the evening of october 21st, 1978,  valentich departed for his training flight. at 7:06pm, he radioed the melbourne flight service to report an unidentified aircraft following him at 4,500 feet. the service told him that there was no traffic near him at the time. he insisted that he could see a large, unknown aircraft near him, which appeared to have four bright landing lights, all illuminated. he claimed it passed 1,000 feet above him, moving at high speed.

for another five minutes valentich reported the aircraft's movements. he claimed it moved towards him, that he thought the other pilot was toying with him, and that it was orbiting above him. the only description, beside the four landing lights, that he was able to give was that the aircraft's exterior was shiny and metallic, and that it had a green light on it.

a few minutes after first radioing the melbourne flight service, fred valentich reported that he was having engine trouble. the radio officials asked him once more to identify the other aircraft. "it isn't an aircraft," he managed to respond, right before the transmission was cut off. the last sound the radio officials heard was a "metallic, scraping sound".

radio officials at the melbourne flight service assumed that valentich had crashed, but an initial sea and air search of the area he was last reported in turned up nothing. the australian department of transport looked into his disappearance but were unable to find anything. a few scattered reports of civilians seeing planes landing or flying overhead were collected, but in the end the disappearance was presumed fatal and the case was closed.

but the case was far from over.

five years after valentich went missing, an engine cowl flap washed ashore on flinders island. the bureau of air safety investigation noted that the part came from the same type of aircraft he was piloting, and it had serial numbers within the same range as his plane.

after the mysterious disappearance, the public learned from guido valentich (fred's father) that fred was an "ardent believer" in ufos, and often worried about being abducted by one. it also came out that he had applied twice to the royal australian air force, but was rejected both times for inadequate educational experience. he was also studying to be a commercial pilot but had failed his exams twice. he had also received several warnings, one after flying into a restricted zone in sydney and two after flying into clouds.

ufologists jumped on the case immediately, offering claims that he was abducted by aliens. they claim that there are eyewitness accounts of the green lights that valentich reported seeing moving across the sky in the area that he was last reported being in. a group in phoenix, arizona also believes that a ufo abduction is a likely explanation. the ground saucer watch claims to have photos taken by a plumber that show an object moving quickly through the water near the scene of the disappearance. however, the photos have been proven to be too blurry to clearly identify the object.

the case remained a topic of conversation amongst conspiracy theorists for 40 years, though no new information was collected until 2014. a ufo action group in victoria claimed that an unidentified farmer saw a 30 metre aircraft hovering over his farm the morning after valentich went missing. he also claimed that valentich's missing aircraft was stuck to the side of the ufo, leaking oil.

the only problem is that the ufo group never learned the name of the farmer. the group has been searching for him since 2013 but have not been successful. despite recurring reports of ufo sightings, and ufologists insisting that fred valentich's disappearance was carried out by extraterrestrials, there has been no real explanation and the mystery continues to haunt conspiracy theorists even today.

what do you think? i think it was a ufo, because there's no other explanation. it's highly unlikely that the plane crashed because they never found the wreckage or fred's body.

information from allthatsinteresting.com/fred-valentich