Incident · 21 October 1978 · Bass Strait, between Cape Otway and King Island, Australia
Frederick Valentich disappears over Bass Strait (21 October 1978)
Also known as Valentich disappearance, Valentich, VH-DSJ, Bass Strait disappearance
On the evening of 21 October 1978, Frederick Valentich, a 20-year-old private pilot with about 150 hours, flew a Cessna 182L (VH-DSJ) out of Moorabbin, near Melbourne, for King Island in Bass Strait. Shortly after reporting Cape Otway he asked Melbourne Flight Service whether there was traffic near him and, over six minutes, described an object with bright lights that passed over him at speed, orbited above him, was long, metallic and shiny with a green light, vanished and came back. He then reported his engine rough idling, said the object was hovering above him and was “not an aircraft”, and the transmission ended in 17 seconds of open microphone.
No trace of the aircraft or the pilot was found in a four-day air, sea and land search. The Department of Transport's summary report, approved in April 1982, reproduces the transcript and records that the reason for the disappearance has not been determined. In 1983 a Cessna 182 cowl flap from a serial range including VH-DSJ's washed up on Flinders Island; the file records the department asking whether it could have drifted there, not a finding.
No official explanation has been established. The National Archives of Australia notes the later suggestion that a bright grouping of planets and a star distracted an inexperienced pilot at night. The official report itself offers no explanation.
Sources: Department of Transport, Aircraft Accident Investigation Summary Report V116/783/1047 (National Archives of Australia, NAA: B1497, V116/783/1047) · National Archives of Australia, “Flying saucers – fact or fiction?” (2018)
Facts and claims
- documented At 1906:26, about six minutes after reporting Cape Otway, the pilot told Melbourne Flight Service Unit there seemed to be a large aircraft below five thousand feet; asked its type, he said “I cannot affirm it is four bright it seems to me like landing lights”. Source: doc-dot-valentich-summary-1982.pdf
- claimed Over the next six minutes, as recorded in the official transcript, he said it was “playing some sort of game”, flying over him at speeds he could not identify; that “it's not an aircraft”; that it had “a green light and sort of metallic (like) it's all shiny (on) the outside”; that “it's just vanished”; then that his engine was rough idling, and at 1912:09 that the strange aircraft was hovering on top of him again: “it is hovering and it's not an aircraft”. — Frederick Valentich Source: doc-dot-valentich-summary-1982.pdf
- documented Melbourne told him there was no known traffic below five thousand feet and no known aircraft in the vicinity. His last transmission, at 1912:28, was followed by 17 seconds of open microphone; there is no record of any further transmission. Source: doc-dot-valentich-summary-1982.pdf
- documented The search by air, sea and land, continued until 25 October 1978, found no trace of the aircraft. The Department of Transport's summary report, approved on 27 April 1982, records the pilot's injury as “Presumed Fatal” and concludes: “The reason for the disappearance of the aircraft has not been determined.” Source: doc-dot-valentich-summary-1982.pdf
- documented In May 1983 an engine cowl flap from a Cessna 182 washed up on Flinders Island; the department noted that VH-DSJ's serial number fell within the range the part fitted, and asked the RAN Research Laboratory whether it could have drifted there from the area of the flight. Source: doc-dot-valentich-summary-1982.pdf
- claimed The National Archives of Australia notes that later researchers suggested a prosaic explanation: Venus, Mars, Jupiter and the star Antares were then in a bright diamond formation, which, with the pilot's inexperience, could have led him to imagine a craft above him and distracted him from his instruments. Source: doc-naa-flying-saucers-2018.pdf
Connected files
Documents
- Department of Transport: Aircraft Accident Investigation Summary Report on VH-DSJ (Valentich), 1982 (documented in)
- National Archives of Australia: "Flying saucers – fact or fiction?" (2018) (discussed in)
People
- Frederick Valentich (witnesses) — Described an unidentified object to Melbourne Flight Service before his aircraft vanished over Bass Strait