The Disappearance of Frederick Valentich: 'It's Not an Aircraft'

At 6:19 PM on Saturday, October 21, 1978, twenty-year-old Frederick Valentich took off from Moorabbin Airport near Melbourne, Australia in a rented Cessna 182L, registration VH-DSJ. His destination was King Island, a small landmass in Bass Strait, the notoriously treacherous body of water separating mainland Australia from Tasmania. The 125-nautical-mile flight should have taken him less than an hour.

At 7:06 PM, Valentich radioed Melbourne Flight Service to report that an unidentified aircraft was following him at 4,500 feet. He described four bright lights, said the craft was large and moving at high speed, and reported that it was orbiting above him. He told the controller his engine was running rough. Then, asked to identify the aircraft, Valentich said five words that have echoed through aviation history ever since: "It's not an aircraft."

His transmission was interrupted by 17 seconds of unidentified noise, described as "metallic, scraping sounds." After that, silence. A four-day search covering over 1,000 square miles found no wreckage, no oil slick, no body. Frederick Valentich had simply vanished.

What You'll Learn

• •Who Was Frederick Valentich?
• •What Did the Radio Transcript Say?
• •What Did the Search Find?
• •What Explanations Have Been Proposed?
• •What No Explanation Can Account For
• •Frequently Asked Questions

Who Was Frederick Valentich?

Frederick Paul Valentich was born on June 9, 1958, and grew up in Melbourne, Australia. He was passionate about aviation and determined to make it his career.

He held about 150 total hours of flying time and a Class Four instrument rating, which allowed him to fly at night in good visibility conditions. He'd twice applied to the Royal Australian Air Force but was rejected due to educational qualifications. He was a member of the RAAF Air Training Corps and was studying for his commercial pilot's license.

Valentich was flying a Cessna 182L, a reliable single-engine light aircraft, when he vanished over Bass Strait.

There's a detail that makes this case even more unsettling. According to his father Guido, Frederick had a deep interest in UFOs and had expressed concern about being taken by one. Six days before his disappearance, his girlfriend Rhonda Rushton says Valentich discussed the possibility of a UFO encounter. Whether that was premonition, coincidence, or something else entirely is one of many questions this case leaves unanswered.

What Did the Radio Transcript Say?

The full radio transcript between Valentich and Melbourne Flight Service was released by the Australian Department of Transport. It remains one of the most chilling aviation recordings in history.

19:06:14 - Valentich: "Melbourne, this is Delta Sierra Juliet. Is there any known traffic below five thousand?" Melbourne: "No known traffic." Valentich: "I am... seems to be a large aircraft below five thousand."

19:06:44 - Melbourne asks to confirm it is a large aircraft. Valentich: "Unknown, due to the speed it's travelling, is there any Air Force aircraft in the vicinity?" Melbourne: "No known traffic."

19:07:32 - Valentich: "Melbourne, it's approaching now from due east towards me... It seems to me that he's playing some sort of game, he's flying over me two, three times at speeds I could not identify."

19:09:27 - Valentich: "It is not an aircraft."

19:10:20 - Melbourne asks to describe the object. Valentich: "As it's flying past, it's a long shape... cannot identify more than it has such speed... It's before me right now, Melbourne."

19:11:43 - Valentich: "It seems like it's stationary. What I'm doing right now is orbiting, and the thing is just orbiting on top of me also. It's got a green light and sort of metallic like... it's all shiny on the outside."

Melbourne Flight Service recorded the full radio exchange with Valentich, providing a minute-by-minute timeline of the encounter.

19:12:09 - Valentich: "It's not an aircraft."

19:12:28 - Valentich reports the object has vanished.

19:12:54 - Melbourne asks about the aircraft's intentions. Valentich: "My intentions are to go to King Island... Melbourne, that strange aircraft is hovering on top of me again... it is hovering and it's not an aircraft."

19:12:28 - Valentich reports engine rough-idling and says he'll try to reach King Island.

19:14:-- - Open microphone for 17 seconds, during which "metallic, scraping sounds" are heard. Then silence.

Melbourne tried repeatedly to re-establish contact. There was no response. Throughout the entire exchange, Valentich never sounded panicked. He sounded confused, increasingly concerned, but composed. This was not a man having a breakdown. This was a pilot calmly reporting what he was seeing.

What Did the Search Find?

A combined air-and-sea search launched the next morning. It included an RAAF Lockheed P-3 Orion maritime patrol aircraft, eight civilian aircraft, and ships crossing Bass Strait. The search covered over 1,000 square miles over four days.

Nothing. No wreckage, no oil slick, no seat cushions, no debris of any kind. A Cessna 182 and its pilot had vanished without a trace.

Bass Strait between mainland Australia and Tasmania is known for its treacherous waters and has been the site of numerous losses.

Five years later, in 1983, an engine cowl flap washed ashore on Flinders Island in Bass Strait. The Bureau of Air Safety Investigation confirmed the part came from a Cessna 182 within the serial number range that included Valentich's aircraft. It's the only piece of physical evidence ever recovered — a single small component from an entire aircraft.

What Explanations Have Been Proposed?

The Disorientation Theory

Some aviation analysts have proposed that Valentich became spatially disoriented over the dark water and entered a "graveyard spiral" — a gradual descending turn that a pilot doesn't realize is happening. In this scenario, the "lights" he saw were planets visible that evening (Venus, Mars, Mercury, and Antares), and the apparent orbiting motion was his own aircraft spiraling.

It's a tidy explanation. But it has serious problems.

Valentich didn't just report lights. He described a shape — "long," "shiny," "metallic like." He described a green light. He described an object that moved at speeds he couldn't identify, then stopped and hovered. Planetary conjunctions don't do any of that.

Then there's the 17 seconds of metallic scraping. If the aircraft simply hit the water, you'd expect impact sounds — not a sustained metallic grinding noise. And the total absence of a debris field is unusual for a coastal crash. Aircraft that hit water break apart. Pieces float. Fuel creates slicks. None of that happened here.

The Staged Disappearance Theory

Some have suggested Valentich staged the whole thing — that the Cessna had enough fuel to fly 500 miles beyond Cape Otway, that his stated reasons for the trip were fabricated, and that he was never tracked on radar.

But no evidence of Valentich being alive after October 21, 1978 has ever surfaced. He was 20 years old with limited resources. And the engine cowl flap on Flinders Island suggests the aircraft did enter the water at some point. People who stage disappearances don't usually send their plane into the ocean.

The Encounter

Valentich described a craft that was large, metallic, shiny, had a green light, moved at extraordinary speed, and appeared to deliberately interact with his aircraft. He stated three separate times: "It's not an aircraft." His transmission ended with 17 seconds of sounds no one has been able to identify.

Multiple witnesses reported unusual lights in the Bass Strait area on the night Valentich disappeared.

There were independent reports of unusual lights in the area that evening. Roy Manifold, who was photographing the sunset at Cape Otway, later discovered what appears to be an unexplained object in one of his photos, taken about 20 minutes before Valentich's final transmission. Melbourne police also received reports of a light aircraft making an unexplained landing near Cape Otway around the same time.

What No Explanation Can Account For

Every proposed explanation for this case leaves something unexplained:

The metallic scraping sound. Seventeen seconds of sustained, unidentified noise. Not consistent with water impact. Not consistent with radio interference. Not consistent with anything in the standard aviation accident handbook.

The complete absence of wreckage. One cowl flap in five years. That's it. An entire aircraft and a human being, gone.

The specificity of the descriptions. This wasn't a pilot seeing lights and panicking. This was a composed pilot providing detailed, specific observations — shape, color, behavior, movement patterns — over the course of six minutes. He had time to observe, describe, and re-describe what he was seeing.

The corroborating sightings. Valentich wasn't the only person who saw something unusual over Bass Strait that night.

The Australian Department of Transport investigated the disappearance and concluded the cause was unknown. Valentich was officially "presumed fatal." The case has never been resolved.

Whatever Frederick Valentich encountered over Bass Strait at 7:12 PM on October 21, 1978 — it's not an aircraft. He was very clear about that.

For other unexplained disappearances, see our articles on Amelia Earhart, Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370, and D.B. Cooper. For UFO encounters involving pilots, check out the Tic Tac UFO and the Kecksburg UFO Incident.

Timeline of Key Events

Frequently Asked Questions

Was Frederick Valentich's body ever found?

No. Neither Valentich's body nor his Cessna 182L were found despite a four-day search covering over 1,000 square miles of ocean. The only physical evidence ever recovered was a single engine cowl flap that washed ashore on Flinders Island five years later. An entire aircraft and its pilot simply ceased to exist.

What were the metallic scraping sounds at the end of the transmission?

No one knows. The 17 seconds of sustained noise at the end of Valentich's final radio contact have never been explained. They've been described as "metallic scraping" or "grinding." They don't match any known sound of an aircraft impacting water, radio interference, or mechanical failure. The original audio recording has never been publicly released — only a reproduction exists, which raises its own questions about what might be on the original tape.

Could Valentich have survived a crash into Bass Strait?

Bass Strait has strong currents, cold water around 55-60°F, and is home to sharks. Survival after impact would have been extremely difficult. But the deeper question is whether there was a crash at all. The complete absence of a debris field — no fuel slick, no floating wreckage, no seat cushions, nothing — is highly unusual for an aircraft hitting water. Planes that crash into the sea leave evidence. This one didn't.

Were there other UFO sightings that night?

Yes. Multiple witnesses reported unusual lights in the Bass Strait area on the evening of October 21, 1978. Roy Manifold, photographing the sunset at Cape Otway, captured what appears to be an unexplained object in one of his photos taken around the time of the incident. These reports came from people who had no connection to Valentich and no reason to fabricate their accounts.

What does the Australian government say happened?

The official investigation concluded: cause unknown. That's where it has stayed for over 45 years. The Australian Department of Transport couldn't explain what Valentich encountered, couldn't explain the metallic sounds, couldn't explain the missing aircraft, and couldn't explain why a 1,000-square-mile search turned up nothing. Sometimes the most honest answer is that we don't have one.