Frederick Valentich () was an Australian pilot who disappeared while on a flight in a Cessna 182L light aircraft, registered VH-DSJ, over Bass Strait. On the evening of Saturday 21 October 1978, twenty-year-old Valentich informed Melbourne air traffic control that he was being accompanied by an aircraft about above him and that his engine had begun running roughly, before finally reporting: "It's not an aircraft."
Frederick Valentich
thumb|left|150px|Frederick Valentich
Frederick Valentich (9 June 1958 – disappeared 21 October 1978) had about 150 total hours of flying time and held a class-four instrument rating, which authorised him to fly at night, but only "in visual meteorological conditions". He had twice applied to enlist in the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF), but had been rejected because of inadequate educational qualifications. He was a member of the RAAF Air Training Corps, determined to have a career in aviation.
Valentich was studying part-time to become a commercial pilot but had a poor achievement record, having twice failed all five commercial licence examination subjects. As recently as the month before his disappearance, Valentich had failed three more commercial licence subjects. He had been involved in flying incidents, for example, straying into a controlled zone in Sydney, for which he received a warning, and twice deliberately flying into a cloud, for which prosecution was being considered. According to his father, Guido, Valentich was an ardent believer in UFOs and had been worried about being attacked by them.
The destination of Valentich's final flight was King Island, but his motivation for the flight is unknown. He told flight officials that he was going to King Island to pick up some friends, while he told others that he was going to pick up crayfish. Later investigations found both stated reasons to be untrue.
Search and rescue
A sea and air search was undertaken that included oceangoing ship traffic, an RAAF Lockheed P-3 Orion aircraft, plus eight civilian aircraft. The search encompassed over . Search efforts ceased on 25 October 1978 without result.
Proposed explanations
Some Western Australia Department of Transport officials speculated that "Valentich became disorientated and saw his own lights reflected in the water, or lights from a nearby island, while flying upside down". despite ideal conditions, at no time was the aircraft plotted on radar, casting doubts as to whether it was ever near Cape Otway; and Melbourne police received reports of a light aircraft making a mysterious landing not far from Cape Otway at the same time as Valentich's disappearance.
According to Brian Dunning, Valentich's radio conversation was similar to the dialogue from a scene in the film Close Encounters of the Third Kind, which was released less than a year before the disappearance, and was popular among pilots, young people and UFO fans. Dunning speculated that it is possible that Valentich was trying to imitate the scene for fun, and deliberately made his aircraft fly in a circular pattern in order to "give the radar guys something to see", but accidentally became disoriented and crashed into the water.
A 2013 review of the radio transcripts and other data by astronomer and retired United States Air Force pilot James McGaha and author Joe Nickell proposes that the inexperienced Valentich was deceived by the illusion of a tilted horizon for which he attempted to compensate and inadvertently put his aircraft into a downward, so-called "graveyard spiral" which he initially mistook for simple orbiting of the aircraft. According to the authors, the G-forces of a tightening spiral would decrease fuel flow, resulting in the "rough idling" reported by Valentich. McGaha and Nickell also propose that the apparently stationary, overhead lights that Valentich reported were probably the planets Venus, Mars and Mercury, along with the bright star Antares, which would have behaved in a way consistent with Valentich's description. However, the Mount Stromlo Observatory noted that there was a meteorite stream that night, with 10 to 15 sightings per hour. According to UFO writer Jerome Clark, Ground Saucer Watch argued that they showed "a bona fide unknown flying object, of moderate dimensions, apparently surrounded by a cloud-like vapour/exhaust residue", although the pictures were not clear enough to identify the object. Snopes editor Jordan Liles suggested that the object was most likely an “out-of-focus fly” or a "bird passing by".