Document · 27 April 1982
Department of Transport: Aircraft Accident Investigation Summary Report on VH-DSJ (Valentich), 1982
Also known as Valentich accident report, V116/783/1047, VH-DSJ report
The Department of Transport's summary report on the loss of Cessna 182L VH-DSJ and its pilot, Frederick Valentich, over Bass Strait on 21 October 1978. It sits at the front of the department's investigation file, now digitised by the National Archives of Australia as NAA: B1497, V116/783/1047 (319 pages). Our copy holds screen captures of its three pages and of a 1983 letter from the same file, with a transcription.
The report gives the flight's background (a night VMC flight plan to King Island and back, full tanks, four life jackets aboard), the recorded radio exchange in which the pilot described an unidentified object, the weather and the search. Its opinion as to cause is that the reason for the disappearance has not been determined.
A later letter in the file records that a Cessna 182 engine cowl flap from a serial range that includes VH-DSJ washed up on Flinders Island in May 1983; the department asked the navy's research laboratory whether it could have drifted there. The file does not, in the pages we hold, link the part to the aircraft.
Sources: National Archives of Australia, NAA: B1497, V116/783/1047 (pages 5–7 and 18)
Facts and claims
- documented The Summary Report (reference V116/783/1047) records a Cessna 182L, VH-DSJ, flown by Frederick Valentich, 20, a private pilot with about 150 hours, which left Moorabbin at 1819 hours on 21 October 1978 for King Island; location and time of the occurrence “Not known”, degree of injury “Presumed Fatal”. Source: doc-dot-valentich-summary-1982.pdf
- documented It reproduces the recorded exchanges with Melbourne Flight Service Unit from 1906:14, after the pilot reported Cape Otway at 1900, noting that words in brackets “are open to other interpretations”. The last transmission from the aircraft, at 1912:28, was followed by 17 seconds of open microphone. Source: doc-dot-valentich-summary-1982.pdf
- documented Weather near Cape Otway was clear with excellent visibility and light winds; the Distress Phase was declared at 1933 when the aircraft did not reach King Island, and an air, sea and land search until 25 October 1978 found no trace of it. Source: doc-dot-valentich-summary-1982.pdf
- documented Opinion as to cause: “The reason for the disappearance of the aircraft has not been determined.” Approved for publication by A. R. Woodward, delegate of the Secretary, on 27 April 1982. Source: doc-dot-valentich-summary-1982.pdf
- documented The same file holds a Department of Aviation letter of 6 July 1983 to the RAN Research Laboratory: an engine cowl flap from a Cessna 182 had washed up at Parry's Bay, Flinders Island, on 15 May 1983, and VH-DSJ's serial number “falls within the range of serial numbers applicable to the part found”; the department asked whether such a piece could have drifted there over close to five years. Source: doc-dot-valentich-summary-1982.pdf
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People
- Frederick Valentich (names)
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