Pilot Saw UFO Right Before Disappearing Over the Ocean

An incredible 1978 case of a UFO sighting and mission pilot is still unsolved. Fred Valentich was a young pilot known for his fascination with UFOs, and also for going rogue - for example, he flew  into a cloud on purpose on two separate occasions! Although many at the time suggested Valentich was either faking his disappearance (he apparently had given two different explanations for why he was flying that day), or was just disoriented and mistook lights reflecting on the water as belonging to a UFO, none of these theories were ever proven. Furthermore, other UFOs were reported at the same time and location, making the "Disappearance of Frederick Valentich" one to keep on the books.

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Pilot reports seeing a UFO right before disappearance

Frederick Valentich standing next to a plane similar to the one he disappeared in 40 years ago. Source:Supplied https://www.news.com.au/travel/travel-advice/travellers-stories/pilots-strange-act-before-ufo-sighting/news-story/87e4379674a21a4380b561eb89650945

 According to air traffic control transcripts, pilot Fred Valentich reported seeing a UFO shortly before disappearing over the Bass Strait on October 21st, 1978. Valentich claimed to see four mysterious lights and described them as "approaching from due east towards [him] ... seems to [be] playing some sort of game ... flying over [him] two, three times, at a time at speeds [he] could not identify" on his way to King Island in Tasmania. Valentich also described the UFO (or UFOs) as looking like "landing lights" of a long object, which seemed to be stationary but also orbiting him and his plane. Valentich finally stated that the UFO was "hovering, and it’s not an aircraft" before an unidentified "staccato" noise was heard and the communications shut off. A search was conducted for Valentich, but he was never found.

Go to 22:00 mark to hear "metallic" clicking/static"noise heard at the end of  Valentich's transmission:

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Local takes photo of UFO 20 minutes after pilot's disappearance

Roy Manifold UFO photo taken after pilot's disappearance https://unsolved.com/gallery/ufo-disappearance/

Although Fred Valentich's last words are some of the most incredible eyewitness testimony ever of a UFO, that's not where the story ends. Others in the area also saw strange things in the sky around the same time as Valentich's distress call. Such as Roy Manifold, who took a photo of an unknown, dark object (shown above).

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Farmer sees flying saucer carrying pilot's plane

Artistic rendering of farmer's testimony https://www.davidreneke.com/the-strangest-ufo-report-in-history/

There was also an unknown farmer who claimed to see a flying saucer hovering in the sky, with a Cessna aircraft attached to it! The farmer was even able to write down the plane's registration number, which was visible at the time of the sighting. The registration number was rumored to be "VH-DSJ," curiously enough - the same name given to Australian's recently declassified case files about the Valentich's disappearance.

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AU Government releases top-secret files

Example of the many hundreds of files released by the AU government https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=11485989

The Australian government eventually released 300+ top-secret documents detailing the 1978 UFO sighting and disappearance of Fred Valentich, and these documents revealed that five years after the incident, a plane resembling Valentich's plane was found submerged in the Bass Strait. The declassified files proved that Valentich did not fake the plane crash, and so the AU government left the possibility of a UFO open.

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The "Kaikoura Lights"

What's interesting is just a few months later, in December of 1978, a wave of UFOs was seen in New Zealand, which is directly across the water from Tasmania, the pilot's destination. The "Kaikoura Lights" were seen by multiple, credible pilots who described strange lights of various sizes and shapes surrounding their aircraft. The UFOs were captured on radar and on on video, and were even documented by a television crew! Although a few different non-alien explanations were offered up by authorities, like "unburnt meteors" and lights reflecting off the clouds, in my opinion none of them did the case any justice, and may show a pattern of government and media going out of their way to try do debunk truly explained events.

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Case still unsolved

40 years after UFO believer and pilot Frederich Valentich disappeared off the coast of Tasmania, we still don't know what happened. Could Valentich really have been abducted by aliens? Was he targeted by them because of his beliefs, or was Valentich looking for a UFO when he went flying that day? Or did Valentich simply mistake something harmless for a UFO and then tragically crash into the ocean? If so, what could explain the other UFOs seen in the area at the same time? If the farmer's account is true, perhaps the flying saucer and/or the plane did eventually crash into the ocean, but only after engaging with each other.

Memorial plaque https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7PColV40bOU

As always, share your great theories on this in the comments, or on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram!

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