What Happened to Frederick Valentich? Possibly the scariest UFO case ever

Did anybody find out about those photos or recording? I never heard back from VUFORS.

Yes this IS a scary case - I remember reading about it in the newspapers when I was a little kid.

But there is another even SCARIER case here in Australia, that happened along the Nullarbor Plain in Jan 1988 - the case of the Knowles family. I distinctly remember it being splashed all over the newspapers and TV at the time, the family being interviewed on current-affairs shows etc. Then, the last I heard, was a little newspaper article which said "NASA officials had flown in from the U.S. to interview the family and to examine their car" - and that was the end of it, not a mention after that.

I would LOVE to find out any more about this "hushed-up" case, because I remember it was BIG at the time - as big as, if not bigger than, the Valentich case. Where are the Knowles family now? What really happened out there on the Nullarbor Plain?

Does anyone here have further information to add about this bizarre incident?

I've just returned from the VUFORS meeting night (literally walked in the door about a minute before typing this).

The secretary, Tony Cook, who usually runs the meetings wasn't there - bummer. One of the 2nd-in-charge dudes called James ran the night. He's very good, however he's not the main man in terms of the in-depth resource knowledge of VUFORS. Still, I like his style and he covered Tony's absence as well as anyone could have done.

I had a chat with him and asked him about the audio tape. According to him, the only copy that he knows about is currently owned by Richard Haines, who of course lives in the USA. It is supposedely in Richard's garage and is on his 'to-do' list to find. The copy was probably given to Richard by Guido (Valentich's father) when Richard came out to investigate the case. Guido was presumably given a copy by the flight controllers, which was NOT normal procedure. Perhaps, they felt that Guido was entitled to a recording of his son's last known words. Guido may have made other copies and distributed them, but no one knows?

James said that Richard is often busy and he has someone called Ted Rowe (spelling?) who works with him. I don't have their email addresses yet, just got in, no time to run a search.

I also spoke with Paul Norman. Bear in mind he's 92 years old, although still in good health. I asked Paul if he had a copy of the tape, he said that he doesn't, as his copy has 'played out'. I didn't press him on that, but I'm presuming he meant that it's probably damaged from overuse? Naturally, he's heard it many times, as he and Richard were the two who did the main investigation on the case. I didn't want to keep Paul too long, as I was under the impression that he wanted to leave, as I saw him kind of heading to the door. I seriously doubt that he would be contactable by email, though I didn't ask him.

I asked James if Melbourne Flight Control Services would have a copy. He presumes that they might, but doubts that they would release it. As part of his job, investigating UFO reports, James sometimes calls Australian Air Services (not sure if that was the exact name of the organisation), where he said there's some type of complaints buereau. He said I could try there and see if it is possible to somehow use an FOI request to dig into their archives...

Tony Cook might know more, but I'm not likely to see him until the next meeting in three months time.

I'm sure some of you USA people might know Richard Haines or have had contact with him. He's the lead to follow for the Valentich audio tapes!

That's as much help as I can give, for now. I was hoping that VUFORS had their own copy that I would be uploading tonight... damn.

Originally posted by tezzajw
That's as much help as I can give, for now. I was hoping that VUFORS had their own copy that I would be uploading tonight... damn.

I can't even imagine some better result coming from such an extremely difficult enterprise: now, thanks to your efforts, we know who to contact: you have been able to narrow the possible people owning a copy of the tape to ONE: what more could we ever expect? I think that's some impressive work you did on this, some shiny example of serious research.

www.nicap.org...

Originally posted by KIRKSTERUK
Without sources your post is 100% pointless.

But some of you will just read and believe it anyway.

[edit on 7-11-2008 by KIRKSTERUK]

Jesus, speak for yourself man. I think it's pretty interesting, if inconclusive. People who speak in such absolute terms just rile me, especially in a place like this.

I learned about two months ago from a past FAA executive that the plane piloted by Frederick was a high-end model which contained three flotation devices-one-within each wing and the other in the fuselage.
---
EDIT: Correction I did not talk to the ret'd FAA Man Myself. But took note of his video Interview. Thanks.

[edit on 4-12-2008 by Decoy]

I am Valentich.... Zeta retticuli system... this is the only transmission allowed... still alive....

reply to post by HugmyRek


I have an alternative theory on the Fredreick Valentich disappearance, and I'm trying to write a book. I knew the family well, and I have a LOT of very remarkable new information. You can contact me:

Neil Harrington
[email protected]
Bendigo

Another very similar case occurred two years after near Puerto Rico;

Location. Mona Channel, Caribbean Ocean near Puerto Rico
Date: June 28 1980 Time: 2003
At 1810 Jose Antonio Maldonado Torres and his friend, Jose Pagan Santos, took off from Las Americas International Airport in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic in an Ercoupe aircraft marked N3808H.
The Ercoupe was owned by Santo’s father Jose Pagan Jimenez, an Aero
Police officer in Puerto Rico. They were bound for home in Puerto Rico. At 2003 the Las Mesas radar site and several aircraft picked up radio transmissions from N3808H: “Mayday, Mayday, Ercoupe ocho cero, eight zero, zero, Hotel. We can see a strange object in our course, we are lost, Mayday, Mayday.”
An Iberia Airlines flight IB-976 en route from Santo Domingo to Spain responded to the Mayday and received a reply:
“Ah we are going from Santo Domingo to ah San Juan International but we found ah a weird object in our course that made us change course about three different times we got it right in front of us now at one o’clock, our heading is zero seven zero degrees…our altitude one thousand six hundred a zero seven zero degrees…our VORs got lost off frequency…”
Iberia Flight IB-976 then relayed a message from San Juan Center asking N3808H to turn on their transponder.
N3808H replied that the Ercoupe was not equipped with a transponder. At 2006 Iberia IB-976 asked for their call sing and estimated position and received this reply:
“Right now we are supposed to be a about thirty five miles from the coast of Puerto Rico but we have something weird in front of us that make us lose course all the time I changed our course a second (unintelligible) our present heading right now is three hundred we are right again in the same stuff sir.”
They were not heard from again. At 2012 the Atlantic Fleet Weapons Range verified the last radar position of N3808H as thirty five miles west of Puerto Rico. A search that included Santos’s father was then mounted which centered on this last radar position. It was discontinued after two days when no trace had been found. No trace was ever found.

www.abovetopsecret.com...

Wow this is a truly amazing story. I can't believe I missed this one previously.
Starred and flagged. The evidence in this case if overwhelming as well as witness testimony. I would like to see the photo that was taking of the one object emerging from the water.

Originally posted by Steve B
Did anybody find out about those photos or recording? I never heard back from VUFORS.

I believe that Dr. Richard Haines of NARCAP has a recording of the radio traffic from the incident (which I hope to hear one day). He investigated the incident and wrote a book about it. I believe the book is titled "The Melbourne Incident".

wow hadn't heard this before either! s&f
the evidence is great

Great post. I cant believe I had never heard of this before!

Star and Flag from me!

Originally posted by kidflash2008
reply to post by chapter29

 

We have to put currents into consideration and other data. It is just the pilots word he saw something. There is no radar or other evidence to suggest there was another object out there. The transcript of the recording can be embellished as it was in the fighters disappearing over the Bermuda Triangle. I just don't think we should jump to an extraterrestrial conclusion on this case. It is still quite interesting, but it does have an Occam's razor explanation to it.

Not true actually... There is independent eye witness reports of an unknown craft in the same area at the same time. Something which did not come to light until a few years later, although the reports of the craft were contemporaneous.

The huge problem with this case was that, the kid himself was a known UFO enthusiast, so it was thought it was some kind of deliberate hoax and he was merely seeking attention and it all went wrong. However the independent witness reports have cast some considerable doubt on this hypothesis

Hullo

Take a look at the material uncovered in the Australian Government's UFO files at

disclosureaustralia.freewebpages.org...

or Google "Disclosure Australia UFO"

Bump.

Here's a thread, dated over a year and a half ago, that discusses the Valentich mystery.

Older thread..

The Enigma of Delta Sierra Juliet's Mysterious Disappearance
www.abovetopsecret.com...

Two versions of the 6th photo taken by Roy Manifold

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/fb73ab040ee5.png[/atsimg]

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/fd107dd958fb.png[/atsimg]

Hi

The Australian Government's Department of Transport's accident investigation file on the disappearance of Frederick Valentich has been located in the National Archives of Australia. Australian researcher Keith Basterfield, recently (ufos-scientificresearch.blogspot.com...) found that the file, supposedely destroyed around 2004 was actually in the Archives.

He has now applied for access to the file.

Wow, i've never heard of this incident before and i've been down to Cape Ottoway and it's lighthouse a couple times. Some great views of cliffs and rough ocean there. A lot of dolphin and whale pods are often seen there too.