Valentich disappearance - rare book now online - "Melbourne Episode" by Dr Richard Haines (free)

The book ”Melbourne Episode : Case Study of a Missing Pilot” (1987) covers the famous sighting involving pilot Frederick M Valentich.

Valentich disappeared after reporting encountering a UFO while flying a Cessna 182 (call sign Delta Sierra Juliet) across the Bass Strait from Melbourne to Hobart, Tasmania on 21st October 1978.

Dr Haines has kindly given permission to upload a searchable copy of that book. The book can now be downloaded (free of charge) from the link below:
app.box.com...


The book on this incident by Dr Haines is now rather rare. This is reflected in the purchase price on Amazon (currently over US$50):

www.amazon.com...


Dr Richard Haines, a veteran UFO research probably best known for being one of the leaders of NARCAP, i.e. the National Aviation Reporting Center on Anomalous Phenomena), which was founded to “to establish a completely confidential reporting center for pilots, radar operators, and air traffic controllers using a toll-free phone number and by other means”.

This rare book has been scanned at my request by Russian ufologist Mikhail Gershtein and various tweaks to the PDF have been added by a member of ATS, Xtraeme. (My thanks again to both Mikhail and Xtraeme...)

(Dr Haines also recently gave me permission to upload another of his books – see my recent thread at this link, which includes a bit more background on Dr Haines : ”Book "UFO Phenomena and the Behavioral Scientist" (edited by Richard Haines) - PDF online”)

The Valentich disappearance is the subject of a Wikipedia entry at:
en.wikipedia.org...

The Valentich disappearance refers to the disappearance of 20-year-old Frederick Valentich while on a 125-mile (235 km) training flight in aCessna 182L light aircraft over Bass Strait in Australia on 21 October 1978.
Described as a "flying saucer enthusiast", Valentich radioed Melbourneair traffic control that he was being accompanied by an aircraft about 1,000 feet (300 m) above him, that his engine had begun running roughly, and finally reported, "It's not an aircraft."[1]
There were belated reports of a UFO sighting in Australia on the night of the disappearance, however Associated Press reported that the Department of Transport was skeptical a UFO was behind Valentich's disappearance, and that some of their 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."[1]

This sighting has been covered in various UFO documentaries, including this one:


His disappearance also is covered in the footage in the videos below (made available by Diane of AUFORN)



This incident came fifth in an online poll conducted in March/April 2006 by Paul Kimball of “the UFO case with the ‘best evidence’ ever”. As part of a survey of various researchers of the “most evidential” UFO case, British ufologists Robert Rosamond and John Spencer produced a joint response which discussed this incident. This incident is Case 35 in my Top 100 article based on frequency of discussion in UFO books, since this case was referred to in 62 of the books covered by that article.

ufos-scientificresearch.blogspot.com.au...

There is a thread on ATS in relation to this sighting started by OzWeatherman in 2008:
What Happened to Frederick Valentich? Possibly the scariest UFO case ever

There is also a thread on ATS started by Kandinsky in June 2012 about the release of the Valentich case files:
Valentich Case Files Finally Released

The contents of the book are described on the book’s back cover as follows:

"Melbourne Episode- Case Study of a Missing Pilot "describes one of the most fantastic and bizarre events in the annals of aviation. A young private pilot radioed to Melbourne aviation authorities of an unidentified luminous phenomenon which seemed to approach him, hover nearby, circle over his own airplane and then suddenly vanish. Then the pilot and airplane disappeared without any trace. This book documents the events leading up to this mysterious incident in 1978. With the precision of a research scientist, the author brings his professional investigative background to bear on many seemingly contradictory and unrelated events such as Valentich's long-standing serious intentions to become a commercial pilot versus allegations that he staged the whole incident. Other possibly related facts include the presence of CIA personnel at a super secret base in central Australia and the author's analysis of strange "metallic" sounds made during the last minutes of his radio transmission.
The first half of the book is factual, presenting all of the available information; the second half was comprised of four fictional chapters presenting realistic narratives of what might have taken place that night. The reader must decide for himself which is most likely in this gripping account. Its outcome is both surprising and entertaining.

Here is the table of contents for the book:


In addition to discussion of relevant events and theories, the book also includes various illustrations and appendices. Here are a few sample pages:

With the permission of the National Archives of Australia (on behalf of the Commonwealth Government of Australia) and the assistance of several members of ATS (particularly ArMap, Keith Basterfield, Giuliano Marinkovic and Kronz), in April 2013 I uploaded searchable PDF files containing over 10,000 pages of Australian UFO documents to a directory at the link below:
sdrv.ms...

Some highlights from that collection were given in my thread ”Oz X-Files : ‘authenticated sighting’, ‘appear to be inexplicable’, USA ‘very interested’”, which included material in relation to the Valentich incident in Section J.

For ease of reference, I’ll repeat below some of the documents relating to the Valentich incident from various files released by the Commonwealth Government of Australia:

File A9755 4 (Barcode 3533427), which includes various relevant newspaper reports (at pages 10-16) including the following:





More substantial are two files devoted to this incident, namely:
(1) the 315 page File B1497 V116-783-1047 (barcode 10491375); and
(2) the 217 page File A4703 1978-1205 (Barcode 11485989)

The former includes an aircraft accident investigation summary report, maps, correspondence, press reports and other material. Since highlights from this file are given in Kandinsky’s thread at the link above, I’ll just post a few pages from the file:

Page 37 of 315:


Page 38 of 315:


Page 39 of 315:


Page 47 of 315:


Page 53 of 315:


Page 125 of 315:

thank you Isaac, this is one of my favourite cases

Very Cool!!! Gonna download this asap. Thanks for posting this.

Thank you thank you thank you. A MUST read as far as I am concerned. Thanks again. An absolutely fascinating case.

Kudos for the research and effort presenting this case. One of my top three favorites.

Thank you again for getting this released Isaac along with many other UFO documents and files.

Although I tend to concentrate on UK cases in the main for my reading I consider this case as one that always intrigued me with a number of possible conclusions.

Not sure when I'll get round to reading it but it's definitely one of my favourite cases.

originally posted by: mirageman
Thank you again for getting this released Isaac along with many other UFO documents and files.

My pleasure. I put together this sort of material for my own use and am more than happy to share - provided I can get relevant permissions.

(If anyone reading this knows any UFO researcher that may be prepared to give permission to have any of their out-of-print UFO book or newsletter made available on a free file storage website, perhaps they could be sounded out on this issue - or just let me know relevant contact details and I'd be happy to email them a permission request...).

Thanks for all the work. good to have it in one place about this case.

Great book from great author..

if i recall , there's was a similar case involving Australian fighter aircraft (propeller driven Hawker Fury) that was also 'accosted' by some kind of phenomena (?)..

- 2 lights accompany the plane (flying in formation)
- a big shadowy shape was seen by the pilot , connected to the light.. (why always like this ? the cisco grove encounter in california also started as a pinpoint of light seen at distance, when it got closer to witness there is a big dark body attached to the light , cigar shaped)
- objects was tracked by radar
- possible 3rd party witness on the object(s) upon their exfil

the difference here between valentich and hawker fury are :
- military pilot that have many more flying hours than mr valentich , even while he admit he is scared, he still retain his cool and the tower control also help calm him down indirectly.
- high performance fighter aircraft compared to the civilian single engine aircraft that valentich used.
- different region but both at night and at sea.

the pattern of 'plane get accosted by unknown big dark object at night and followed' seems a bit familiar, JAL cargo plane in alaska also came to mind..

a reply to: IsaacKoi

Thank you for this amazing thread! And thanks to Dr. Haines for giving permission for the free download.

I look forward to reading it, and the other information you have posted.

S&F, and a standing ovation on such good work!!

The metallic sound played in the first documentary clip, is that THE metallic sound? Or, as sstated in the second full 2 part documentary, is it true that still to this day the actual recording has not been released?

Thank you so much for this thread, and the link to the other. This case and Dyatlov are my two favorite unexplained events to study.

originally posted by: 3n19m470
The metallic sound played in the first documentary clip, is that THE metallic sound? Or, as sstated in the second full 2 part documentary, is it true that still to this day the actual recording has not been released?

Hi 3n19m470.
You can forget almost all the so called audio clips from the documentaries over the years as they are reenactments. Even one discovery channel documentary had title "ACTUAL AUDIO". I later checked with people that know much more about the tape and they confirmed to me that it was also a reenactment (in other words it was a deliberate false claim by producers).

My colleague from Australia recalls that there was one old show where the actual audio was played. However, he checked with National Archives and could not find relevant show.
Only recently metallic sounds were released thanks to Dr. Haines. The rest of the tape is still not in the public domain. Also, in that sense, the wishes of the family have to be respected.
And yes, copy of the tape still exists in a few places.

It could be also of your interest journey of ATS user "tezzajw" who back in 2008 tried to get the tape. You can read his attempts here:
www.abovetopsecret.com...

Valentich tape was also used in Flight Safety Officer courses back in 1980s.

Hope that helps.

Best wishes.

UFORadio

Very interesting. I completely refute the allegation that it was spatial disorientation. The transcripts clearly show that he was coherent and reading his instruments correctly. Also, a majority of such disorientation occurs in poor weather. It was a training flight but he was obviously competent enough to know the difference between an object and reflecting lights. I haven't read the book yet but I will. Just wanted to say that some of the explanations are moronic. On a side note, isn't that near where the Malaysian flight went missing?

Due to the surprising number of downloads of these books from the free file storage website I used, the monthly file transfer limit was reached. To avoid anyone having to wait until the end of the month when the problem would resolve itself, I've also uploaded both books by Dick Haines to a temporary storage website with no traffic limit:
we.tl...

In my opinion after many years of thought on this subject is that the 'unknown' was demonstrating its capabilities to the pilot as if to offer an invite - 'come fly for us'.

This definitely deserves an extra bump and thank you!!

I converted the book to Kindle and reading it right now. Not very far in, but it's very good.

I love those books where they cover one single case in all details, rather than the many other "UFO books" which are just a line-up of cases we all know already.

This case itself is definitely one of the most interesting I know about and the book is well written, and it's free! I Highly recommended.