Frederick Valentich Update: A real bizarre development

The Valentich case was one of the first I ever read about and it still holds my facination today. The one thing that struck me as being odd was the suggestion by some people at the time that it was an elaborate fake by Valentich to enable him to disappear to avoid debts or some other aspect in his life which drove him to decide that absconding was the only way out.

Trouble is, he was interested in ufology and would almost certainly be aware that faking your own abduction would generate decades of interest and investigation. If it was his intent to disappear he would simply radio that he was experiencing engine problems then duck out of sight.

Concerning the Russian story: why on Earth would aliens operating a base on Callisto want to thieve oxygen from our atmosphere? There are abundant sources of oxygen on Callisto itself. Not really fuel efficient to come all this way when there is just as much sitting on your doorstep.

Callisto.

People might stage their own deaths in such an elaborate way so an associate can collect on an insurance policy or something, even though one has to wait a certain number of years to be declared legally dead by the courts. The police and insurance company investigators are alert to scams like that, and I've never heard a hint of them in the Valentich case.

If he simply wanted to disappear for whatever reason, there were a lot simpler and less riskier ways of doing it.

Another possibility would be suicide due to personal problems, money problems, physical or psychological illness, but I have never heard that Valntinch was depressed, suicidal or in poor health, but rather a young man just starting out in life and looking forward to his future as an airline pilot. I'm sure the police would have checked into all that, too: probably the first thing they would have checked out in speaking with his friends and relatives.


I have often wondered if there are any satellites over the area that got some pictures of this event like they did with the 1976 Tehran UFO, but we may never know that.

[edit on 2-9-2010 by witness63]

reply to post by witness63


I dunno if i'd stage my own death if my father was about to die. I guess it would depend on the situation though and why et al.

A mysterious object was photographed in the same area as the disapearance minutes earlier

www.news.com.au...

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

It seems that the files to this case have now been released

Documents include: * Chart of the intended flight path * Aircraft data * Flight crew data * Flight data * Meteorological data * A sequence of events * An analysis of the cause * Attachments. The attachments include notes of conversations between Departmental investigators and: * The Moorabbin briefing officer * The person who refuelled VH-DSJ that night * The Departmental OIC, King Island * A cray fisherman from King Island * The mess officer, ATC HQ * An individual who flew VH-DSJ that morning * Valentich's pilot tutor * Valentich's father * Valentich's girlfriend * A close friend of Valentich * An employee of Southern Air Services (SAS - whose aircraft it was) * Four SAS instructors/pilots. The attachments also include: * A radar plot from Melbourne Flight Services * An analysis of the radar returns from that time * Valentich's flight plan * A transcript of recorded communications between DSJ and Melbourne Flight Services which covers a greater time frame than that of the publicly released document from 1982 * A chart showing radio coverage at various heights and various distances from Melbourne * A confidential personal history of Valentich * A summary based on information from the RAAF * Valentich's commercial pilot licence examination details * Details of DSJ's radio equipment * Weather forecasts for the area * Best estimate of weather along the flight path * A report on water samples ex Bass Strait by the Department of Defence Materials Research Laboratories * A specialist report from a doctor on Human Factors Aspects * A report on an aircraft towing a glide near Apollo Bay * A UFO report from an individual * A report on a shower of metallic "scintillations" seen in the sky. The report's top page, in section 7, "Opinion as to cause" simply states "Not determined - aircraft missing." The covering "Air Safety Investigation Minute" para 3, states " The Region does not intend to take any further action in this matter unless positive factual evidence is obtained."

You can read the file by:

1. Go to www.naa.gov.au...
2. Click on "search the collection"
3. Click on "begin your search"
4. Up comes "RecordSearch"
5. In the keywords box type the word Valentich
6. Click on search
7. Up comes a list
8. Scroll down to V116/783/1047
9. Click on this entry
10. Click on digital file
11. Up comes the file.

Although it seems the case remains one that will probably remain unsolved.

You are mistaken, to say that Cape Otway is not far from Pine gap is like saying that New York is not far from Los angeles.
Don't you guys check ANYTHING?

originally posted by: spirit_horse
If I am not mistaken the incident occured not far from Pine Gap, an Echelon signals intelligence station equipped with radar capable of seeing a grapefruit sized object 30,000 miles out into space and is able to tell which direction the object is rotating. They have had inquires about this incident and claim they have no information at all and did not pick up the incident. People familiar with Pine Gap's operations say this is almost impossible given their geospatial intelligence and situational awareness of the entire area. It is believed that they witnessed the incident through their instruments on site and refuse to release any information on the incident.

Rense,com has some photos of the base at this url:
www.rense.com...

Obviously there are plenty of sites, including ATS that has good information on Pine Gap and their capabilities. I just thought I would add this to the OP's story which I heard of shortly after it happened. It is one of those incidents that I don't like. Taking people at will and not returning them is unsettleing to say the least.

[edit on 12/8/10 by spirit_horse]

The National Archives of Australia now has digitised four files relating to this disappearance, at the request of Australian researcher, Keith Basterfield.

Please see Keith's blog post at

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

for details.

Some of the Aussies on here probably no more about this incident (including myself)
Because we were so close to this; although I never witnessed this it was literally a few miles down the road where i lived 30 years ago , it was a Major news story at the time and a large scale Air search was conducted for weeks after the incident, with no evidence of the plane found. Many theories were discussed at the time ; that the plane had crashed and the pilot had become disoriented, yet to this day only a cowling flap off a Cessna similar to the one Frederick Valentich was Flying was found washed ashore several years later near an island in Bass strait which happens to be near an airstrip. The most compelling evidence in this case is the conversation between Frederick and the Flight controller at Morabbin ; he is totally convinced that Frederick was genuine in his description of being followed by A UFO. The actual tape of the conversation between the flight control has never been released to the public , Some Australian UFO investigators believe that a copy was given to Fredericks Father ; since his death it has never shown up ; Apparently Richard Haines was given access to it ; recently declassified documents have been released; but no tapes , rumours persist that there is more on the tape than what the transcripts reveal . An Australian investigator is trying to loacate a Farmer that came forward with a story that on the Day after the incident ; on a small property in South Australia while he was tending his cattle he saw UFO hovering above the ground with what looked like a Cessna plane stuck to the outside of the craft ; he was able to read the call sign of the aircraft ; as he was on his tractor he didn’t have a pen so he scratched the Number on the tractor, the Farmer seemed reluctant to come forward and report the incident , and was never heard of again.