Agnostic.com

6 0

The Valentich Incident.

There have been thousands of pilots who have died while piloting, even apart from those killed in battle, that haven’t involved UFOs. There have been (by now) thousands of encounters between pilots and UFOs that haven’t involved death. However, there is an intersection between these two categories.

The phrase “unidentified flying objects” suggests that UFOs have an affinity with our terrestrial pilots – both fly and share our airspace. Thus, terrestrial pilots should have seen and reported a goodly proportion of UFO events. And that indeed is the case. There’s been many an interesting close encounter between military, commercial and private pilots. No great news there. However, there have been several UFO incidents that have resulted in the death or disappearance (and presumed death) of the pilot(s) and sometimes crew too. That ratchets up the seriousness ante quite considerably.

UFO sightings by airline pilots (military, civilian, and private) now number in the thousands. Unfortunately, there have been instances of pilots who have died or who have gone missing (presumed dead) while witnessing, pursuing or otherwise involved with some form or other of UFO-related activity. That alone suggests that UFOs are not only a serious business, but also at times a deadly business.

The list of pilot encounters with UFOs is now so extensive that it would take several book length volumes to adequately cover the subject. There is however that deadly subset of those pilot-related encounters. Take the Valentich incident.

People disappear all the time. Even aircraft vanish now and again. But for an aircraft and her pilot to disappear all while the pilot (Valentich) was in radio contact with flight control and while reporting a metallic object orbiting overhead that was “not an aircraft”, followed by strange metallic noises then a total eerie silence, well that’s unusual.

VALENTICH INCIDENT [1978]: One of many, many highly unexplained UFO cases is the events surrounding Frederick Valentich on 21 October 1978. It’s more a case of where there’s smoke, there’s smoke, but smoke there certainly is, and lots of it.

In a nutshell, on the evening of that date, in perfect weather for night flying, Mr. Valentich piloted a private plane from Melbourne, intended destination, King Island in Bass Strait. He took off only to shortly thereafter radio in repeatedly asking if there was another aircraft in his vicinity. That was a negative according to air traffic control. This ‘aircraft’ ultimately started hovering or orbiting over him. Let’s now call a spade a spade here and state the ‘aircraft’ was a UFO. The UFO was also spotted by several independent witnesses. While radioing in his observations, ultimately acknowledging at the end that the mysterious ‘aircraft’ was not an aircraft, all contact ceased; all communications abruptly ended. Mr. Valentich, plane and all, vanished without trace. An extensive air and sea search failed to find any sign of Mr. Valentich, or his plane. No oil slick, no floating wreckage, no body – nothing, zip, bugger-all. No trace has ever been found of pilot or plane – not then, not since, not ever.

One obvious explanation was that Mr. Valentich staged his own disappearance, although friends and family could offer no reason why he would do so. Of course many people voluntarily disappear themselves for various reasons; many eventually are found, are caught or reappear voluntarily. But keep in mind; it wasn’t just Mr. Valentich who disappeared. One entire aircraft vanished as well, never to be seen again. Surely if Mr. Valentich wanted to ‘drop out’, there were easier and way less conspicuous ways of doing so. If he had deliberately gone walkabout, in these decades since of security cameras and computer facial software recognition technology, it would be hard to remain an unknown walkabout in any populated area.

Was suicide a motive? Again, no wreckage or body was ever found, and who would go to all the bother of reporting a non-existent UFO overhead – a non-existent UFO that happened to be independently reported by others. Anyway, no suicide note was found.

And what of the plane since no wreckage was ever found floating on the surface of Bass Strait; washed up on beaches, or found on the ocean bottom – Bass Strait isn’t that deep. It’s a mystery, and while it doesn’t prove aliens nicked off with Mr. Valentich and plane, there’s not that much wriggle room.

Interestingly, despite my (and others) asking for a copy of the Valentich ‘accident’ case report in an official capacity related to my employment at the time, the Department of Transport (Air Safety Investigations Branch) refused. To this day, to the best of my knowledge, that report has never been publicly released. A summary report was issued mainly giving the transcript of Valentich’s final conversation with air traffic control with the conclusion being that they could not determine the exact cause into the mishap.

That summary report by the Australian Department of Transport was issued (24 April 1982) which can be found on the WWW as posted there by other people, but it’s just the transcript of Valentich’s communication with the air traffic controller on duty, followed by a conclusion titled “Opinion As To Cause”. That opinion stated “The reason for the disappearance of the aircraft has not been determined.”

johnprytz 7 Dec 17
Share

Enjoy being online again!

Welcome to the community of good people who base their values on evidence and appreciate civil discourse - the social network you will enjoy.

Create your free account

6 comments

Feel free to reply to any comment by clicking the "Reply" button.

1

Fairly typical case of spacial disorientation at night by an inexperienced pilot. His obsession with UFOs doesn't change anything, and may well have been a contributing factor to his crash. And parts of his plane did wash ashore, no real mystery here. [skeptoid.com]

@johnprytz There's nothing to explain, that's why this incident doesn't mean anything. He got disoriented over the ocean at night and crashed, an all too common occurrence.

@johnprytz No, there's actually not. If he hadn't been a UFO nut, this case wouldn't exist.

@johnprytz Because it's the reason this otherwise unremarkable crash is still beloved of UFO believers.

@johnprytz Inexperienced pilot gets disoriented flying at night over water and crashes. perfectly common, perfectly prosaic, and infinitely more likely than "imaginary beings did it."

0

Staged disappearance...or incompetence.....why drag UFO's into it?

@johnprytz ummm, yeah, because that would be FRAUD and if they helped him in any way lead to Federal charges....I can sure feel comfy relying on That denial!
Yup, and the missing guy, just before he successfully goes missing, reports a UFO....andhe is well-known to be fascinated by them. Must be true!

@johnprytz Except if your disappearance furthers your obsession with UFO's.........
Oh, but wait! No pilot, ever, has deviated from their filed flight plan because of weather conditions, instrument failure, or incompetence, so it MUST be aliens...is that your position?!

@johnprytz why would I want to?

@johnprytz the incident is pretty boring...your obsession with aliens causing it (along with a bunch of other things) is not only quite amusing but also bizarrely fascinating, in a train-wreck kind of way.....

@johnprytz Buwahahahaaaaa, again, you input Your bizarre take......absofuckinglutely fascinating how it is You 24/7/365 and You have to be taken 1000% seriously 24/7/365....or....?

0

@johnprytz -- I too have an agenda. I would dearly love for all this to be true. To know finally that we are not alone in this universe. But that desire does not drive me to make conclusions that have no support in real evidence.

I've been watching the sky intently since my 7th birthday and that was 71 years ago. I've seen things I couldn't identify during that time. I've been a pilot too, and I've seen a couple of odd things up there. I've been in places far from any human habitation and seen skies so clear that the stars were palpable. Over 98% of what I couldn't identify at the time was easily explained in a logical and rational manner. There remains that 2% that remain unexplained, unidentified --- UFO. Does that make them machines being flown by some intelligence? No. Does it make them experimental aircraft from anywhere but Earth? No. Does it even make them experimental aircraft from Earth? No. To draw any of those conclusions is to make a leap that no rational person with any science background at all is not going to make. There ... is ... no ... evidence.

1

Zero evidence is still zero evidence.

2

Nope. Valentich was just a lousy pilot who was obsessed with UFOs. [csicop.org]

@johnprytz you want to believe, totally without evidence, that aliens exist. Fine, but understand it's total bullshit.

@johnprytz Actually, yes it is. There is not a single shred of evidence of an intelligent alien species advanced enough to travel many, many light-years just to find and visit an out-of-the-way planet. Your 'logic', such as it is, is pretty horrible. Your only 'evidence' is that weird things, maybe unexplained, happened to pilots or others, and therefore, aliens. Sorry. It's total bullshit.

@johnprytz That is one of the more laughably stupid things I've ever read. You presented quite a fine example of fractal wrongness.

@johnprytz You truly are an idiot.

1

It sounds as if you start to make an argument through "proponderance of evidence", but your evidence comes down to one incident, which is inconclusive. The Pacific and Indian Oceans are vast places, and wreckage is not always found or correctly identified.

Furthermore, it's possible he disappeared for reasons unknown. An argument there could be UFO's is not the same as one that there definitely are UFO's, or one that points that any attempt at possible identification.

It's perhaps a tantalizing mystery, but it's a story with an unsatisfying ending.

@johnprytz how do you know he went down over Bass Straits?!?!!?

Write Comment
You can include a link to this post in your posts and comments by including the text q:245826
Agnostic does not evaluate or guarantee the accuracy of any content. Read full disclaimer.