The Night the Sky Took a Pilot
Saturday, October 21 1978 approx 6:19 p.m. local time. Moorabbin Airport, Melbourne, Australia. Frederick Valentich, 20, a keen but inexperienced pilot with 150 hours flying time, climbs into a blue-and-white Cessna 182L (registration VH-DSJ, call-sign Delta Sierra Juliet). Frederick plan for the days is: a 125-nautical-mile night flight across Bass Strait to King Island to pick up crayfish (officially) and maybe impress his girlfriend Rhonda Rushton with a sunset flight (unofficially).
He files a flight plan for a return by 7:28 p.m. The weather is perfect: clear skies, light winds, full moon rising. Frederick is excited to be flying. He tells air traffic control over the radio that he’s “looking forward to it.” Everything is going fine and dandy with no problems at all. But then...
Abridged Radio Transcript
19:06:14 – Frederick Valentich/DSJ: “Melbourne, Delta Sierra Juliet. Is there any known traffic below five thousand?”
Steve Robey FS/ATC: “Delta Sierra Juliet, no known traffic.”
Frederick Valentich: “Delta Sierra Juliet, I am… seems to be a large aircraft… four bright lights… it seems like it’s playing some sort of game. It’s flying over me two, three times at speeds I could not identify.”
19:08:18 – Frederick Valentich: “Melbourne, it’s approaching now from due east towards me.”
Steve Robey FS/ATC: “Delta Sierra Juliet.”
19:08:28 – Frederick Valentich: “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.”
19:08:48 – Frederick Valentich: “Melbourne, this is Delta Sierra Juliet. The aircraft has just passed over me at least a thousand feet above.”
Steve Robey FS/ATC: “Delta Sierra Juliet, roger, and it is a large aircraft, confirmed?”
19:09:02 – Frederick Valentich: “Er… unknown, due to the speed it’s travelling. Is there any Air Force aircraft in the vicinity?”
Steve Robey FS/ATC: “Delta Sierra Juliet, no known aircraft in the vicinity.”
19:09:27 – Frederick Valentich: “Melbourne, it’s approaching now from south-west.”
19:09:46 – Frederick Valentich: “Delta Sierra Juliet, the engine is rough-idling. I’ve got it set at twenty-three twenty-four and the thing is coughing.”
19:10:00 – Frederick Valentich: “Melbourne, Delta Sierra Juliet. It is hovering and it’s not an aircraft.”
19:10:07 to 19:10:24 – Open microphone for 17 seconds: metallic scraping noises, like metal on metal. Then silence.
The Search – And the Nothing They Found
October 22–30 1978 – The at-the-time largest air-and-sea search in Australian history is launched. The search teams have Frederick's last known location on radar so are extremly hopeful of finding the crash site. Over 1,000 square miles is methodically combed by Lockheed P-3 Orion aircraft, navy ships and helicopters. Result: zero wreckage, zero oil slick, zero distress beacon. The official 1982 report simply says: “Fate unknown.”
Theories and Likelihood
1. Genuine UFO Encounter / Abduction
Likelihood: 50%
2. Spatial Disorientation / Pilot Error
Likelihood: 50%
While reading up on this story it was srange, or not so strange at all to be honest, Wikipedia sights a report in "The Australian" (24 October 1978) newspaper claimed Fredericks plane was never plotted on radar. Which seems pretty dumb thing to claim since the ATC was able to see Fredericks plane on their radar to check for, and confirm that, no other aircraft was near him. Maybe ATC people just guess these things, who knows.
Skepdiks, obviously, claim the UFO was simply Venus, Mars, Mercury and the star Antares. If, as they also claim, Frederick was flying upside down and seeing his own aircraft lights reflected on the water doesn't that contradict their own "it was planets and stars!" claims?
Final Verdict
ONE OF THE MOST CHILLING AVIATION DISAPPEARANCES EVER RECORDED. A 20-year-old pilot with a UFO obsession tells air traffic control exactly what is happening in real time. Then his voice is replaced by metallic scraping and silence. No wreckage. No body. No explanation. Forty-seven years later, the last words of Delta Sierra Juliet that October night still echo: “It is not an aircraft.”