The mystery surrounding Australian pilot Frederick Valentich

[LiveByTheSea]

I find it hard to believe that Frederick was abducted by a UFO. There must some logical explanation for his disappearance. What do you guys think happened to him? Here are some theories I found:

1. Frederick was attacked by drug smugglers and killed.

2. Faking the entire episode which was the setting for a suicide attempt.

3. Valentich was flying upside down and became disoriented. He then began seeing his own plane's lights reflected in the water and ended up crashing into the water.

4. Valentich staged his own disappearance.

[Arnold_OldSchool]

3 has been debunked as the plane was incapable of this

[LaToyaBoy]

Christ almighty...what a freaking amazing episode.

I think it was a much more simple explanation...something along the lines of..."the sun was hitting the plane at a percise angle which created a coloring and the image of a flying effect", etc. Along those lines. Needless to say...I dont buy into the UFO's and such.

But either way, LivesByTheSea, Im interesting in why you posted #1...that extremly interesting. I, personally, Had never even thought of it. Continue please....

[James T]

1. I don't think drug smugglers can fly at insane speeds- would he not have reported seeing suspicious activity, would a smuggler not take a shot from the ground rather than sending a plane after him?

2. There were no reports he was ever depressed or suicidal, he seemed to be a happy person- so suicide is very unlikely. Would he be bothering reporting all that stuff if he was going to kill himself?

3. No

4. Possibly although unlikely, what would be his motive?


There can be no doubt something strange happened that night, we will probably never know what. Theories range from freak weather conditions, to aliens, to a military project.

[justins5256]

The old "In Search of" series did a story about Valentich's unusal disappearance that also featured a re-enactment of the flight.

The ISO re-enactment, in my opinion, was world's better than the UM re-enactment. Granted it was the seventies so they didn't utilize all the special effects, but did well with what they had. The ISO segment was also how I first heard of the case. It would be a couple more years before UM profiled it (I first saw the ISO segment in '91 or '92 on A+E).

Frederick's father was interviewed for both productions. I always felt bad for him. He still believed Frederick was alive and in the ISO segment conceded the possibility that Frederick might be living with other intelligences in outer space.

[marlins3]

Ultra bizarre case. I think he may have suffered from som ekind of dementia while in flight OR saw a strange light reflection and dumped his plane.

[leafygreens]

Why is everyone saying that it's impossible for him to have been flying upside down? This is how JFK Jr. crashed his plane- becoming disoriented and flying vertically down instead of horizontally.

[Arnold_OldSchool]

Originally Posted by leafygreens

Why is everyone saying that it's impossible for him to have been flying upside down? This is how JFK Jr. crashed his plane- becoming disoriented and flying vertically down instead of horizontally.

http://www.abovetopsecret.com/forum/thread409461/pg1


lots of info here

[UMfan77]

But how do you explain the green light that was floating over his airplane? That mysterious green light raises a lot of questions as to what happened.

[mozartpc27]

Originally Posted by justins5256

The old "In Search of" series did a story about Valentich's unusal disappearance that also featured a re-enactment of the flight.

The ISO re-enactment, in my opinion, was world's better than the UM re-enactment. Granted it was the seventies so they didn't utilize all the special effects, but did well with what they had. The ISO segment was also how I first heard of the case. It would be a couple more years before UM profiled it (I first saw the ISO segment in '91 or '92 on A+E).

Frederick's father was interviewed for both productions. I always felt bad for him. He still believed Frederick was alive and in the ISO segment conceded the possibility that Frederick might be living with other intelligences in outer space.

Really? I would love to see this. This is probably the only UFO segment I really like from UM: it's one of my all-time favorites.

[mozartpc27]

Originally Posted by justins5256

The old "In Search of" series did a story about Valentich's unusal disappearance that also featured a re-enactment of the flight.

The ISO re-enactment, in my opinion, was world's better than the UM re-enactment. Granted it was the seventies so they didn't utilize all the special effects, but did well with what they had. The ISO segment was also how I first heard of the case. It would be a couple more years before UM profiled it (I first saw the ISO segment in '91 or '92 on A+E).

Frederick's father was interviewed for both productions. I always felt bad for him. He still believed Frederick was alive and in the ISO segment conceded the possibility that Frederick might be living with other intelligences in outer space.

ISO was a fun show, but they were always "conceding" - I would say pushing - the most bizarre possible explanations for everything. I just watched the opening of the show on "Atlantis" out on the internets somewhere - it begins, strangely, with a review of various large stone carvings like the ones on Easter Island and even larger "drawings" of people made in the land using mounds and stuff (the kind you need to be up in the air to really make out what they are), and suggests, like all shows of this type do, that all these things could only have been made with "advanced" technology. What could have been the source of this terribly "advanced" technology on display in these art objects at these far-flung locations (the drawing of at least one giant man was from England, whereas Easter Island is off the west coast of South America)? Why Atlantis of course! Even though the only we thing we know for sure about Atlantis is that it, in all likelihood, never existed per se as a place, the only logical conclusion is that it must have been the source for the technology used to make sculptures and renderings in England and South America thousands of years before recorded time.

These are the kinds of conclusions ISO draws.

[CanadianUMFan]

Wasn't Leonard Nimoy a great narrator though? As for the Valentich case, it is a truly compelling one and one for which I can't think of a plausible explanation.

[GavinD80]

Originally Posted by Arnold_OldSchool

3 has been debunked as the plane was incapable of this

Doesn't rule out being disoriented. Likely he wasn't paying attention to his instruments and went down.

[mozartpc27]

Originally Posted by CanadianUMFan

Wasn't Leonard Nimoy a great narrator though? As for the Valentich case, it is a truly compelling one and one for which I can't think of a plausible explanation.

The Valentich case is the only UFO case I've ever really loved. UM's coverage and reenactment are top-notch, and the case is genuinely eerie. Nevertheless, I'm 99.99999999% certain that there is, at bottom, a very humdrum and Earth-bound explanation for his disappearance - though it will probably never be known to us. And as long as it isn't, the imagination boggles the mind...

[Todd Mueller]

Originally Posted by leafygreens

Why is everyone saying that it's impossible for him to have been flying upside down? This is how JFK Jr. crashed his plane- becoming disoriented and flying vertically down instead of horizontally.

Getting disoriented, flying out of control, and crashing is one thing. Flying upside down is something else.

The kind of plane Frekerick was flying is not capable of upside down flight. The fuel is fed to the engine via gravity from the wings and it has no fuel pump. If it were to roll inverted, the engine would quit almost immdiately.

I have no doubt he saw "something." What that something was, and if it was real or imagined, is anyone's guess. He probably flew until he became disoriented (easy to happen over the ocean in low light) or ran out of gas and crashed. Those are the most likely scenario.

Or he is living with Skywalker family on Tatooine.