
© Tait SchmaalAdelaide researcher Keith Basterfield has been following the case of the disappearance of pilot Frederick Valentich since 1978.
An accidental discovery sheds new light on the mysterious disappearance of a pilot in 1978, writes Miles Kemp.Unlike a myriad other UFO sightings at the time, the claims of 20-year-old pilot Frederick Valentich could not easily be dismissed as a hoax.
Unlike others who said they had seen strange lights or craft in the sky, Valentich was mid-way through a detailed and recorded description of his sighting when he disappeared forever over Bass Strait.
"It is not an aircraft it is . . . ," an air-traffic control transcript records Valentich as saying at 7.09 and 28 seconds on the evening of 21 October 1978.
Valentich was part-way through a seven-minute conversation with Melbourne air traffic control about the craft.
At 7.10pm and 20 seconds, Valentich said: "What I am doing right now is orbiting and the thing is just orbiting on top of me also it has a green light and sort of metallic, it's all shiny (on) the outside."
A long metallic clanging sound marked the end of the transmission and the beginning of a long battle to have all records of the disappearance made public.
Now a chance discovery of the official file on the disappearance appears to have eliminated the popular theory at the time that Valentich had staged an elaborate hoax disappearance of his single-engine aircraft.
For 34 years, the Valentich family, friends, UFO theorists and the media succeeded only in having a brief summary of the investigation and a transcript of the air-traffic control conversation released. An audio recording of the conversation was released to Valentich's father so he could hear his son's last words - but only on strict instructions it go no further.