The Disappearance of Frederick Valentich
The account
A young pilot described a metallic object above his plane over the radio, then vanished without a trace.
What investigators found
The official investigation could not determine the cause; theories include spatial disorientation, a crash at sea or a staged disappearance.
The story
On the night of October 21, 1978, Frederick Valentich, a 20-year-old pilot, was flying a small Cessna toward King Island, crossing the Bass Strait. Over the radio, he told Melbourne air traffic control that a long object with a green light was hovering above his plane. His last words were something like "it's not an aircraft," followed by a metallic scraping noise. Neither the pilot nor the plane was ever found.
The Australian government's report concluded that the fate of the aircraft was unknown. Skeptics note that a pilot disoriented in the dark can end up flying banked or even upside down, mistaking his own lights, or stars reflected on the sea, for something strange. Other theories point to an accidental crash or even a planned escape. For ufologists, it remains one of the most disturbing cases in the world.