FAB CENDOC Envelope 09 (1978)

Read from the scan by GLM-OCR; expect the odd misread word.

- do any more searching myself. I still have this feeling that he was forced to land and is lying out there waiting to be rescued. I know he's alive. I just know it."

3) Another of Valentich's searchers said, "It's nothing to do with drugs. I saw him flatten a bloke once just because the bloke offered him drugs." 4) Finally, too much time has passed for this to be a hoax that would climax in a miraculous reappearance. The case seemed similar to the Travis Walton abduction at first, but Walton reappeared after only a few days.

## PREMISE #5: THE FEDERAL DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORT IS COVERING UP SOME OF THE TRUTH OF THIS CASE. ONLY EDITED PORTIONS OF THE TAPED CONVERSATION ARE BEING RELEASED:

## Arguments In Favor:

1) The department's press officer, Ken Williams, said. "The tape certainly runs longer than six minutes (the length covered by the transcriptEd.). It could be half an hour. We released only the highlights." (Ironically, the name of one of the spokesmen who "refused to release the tapes" was Mr. Nixon.)

2) The transcript shows the pilot at 7:09 as saying: "It's not an aircraft, it is..." (Break in transmission). A "source", unnamed by the Melbourne AUSTRALIAN newspaper, indicated there was no break in transmission and that Mr. Valentich went on to describe the UFO in detail.

3) Mr. Nixon, spokesman for the Minister of Transport in Canberra, said, "we believe that air safety investigators can probably come to better conclusions than the press. We have our own views on what happened and they certainly don't include UFOs." (emphasis added). The Melbourne Department of Transport added that it was department policy not to release tapes during an accident investigation.

## Arguments Against:

1) The Department of Transport denied that it withheld anything pertinent to the UFO encounter despite newspaper reports to the contrary (Christchurch STAR, Oct. 25). The six-minute transcript, they claimed, is complete from beginning to end. The transmission breaks were just that, probably Valentich's finger holding the microphone while looking away. The rest of the tape simply records his departure from Moorabbin up to the start of the encounter. 2) Guido Valentich asked to hear the tape to assure himself that nothing had been hidden. The pilot's father

stated that what he heard was the same as the transcript; he didn't believe anything was missing.

## PREMISE #6: VALENTICH'S DISAPPEARANCE WAS A BIZARRE SUICIDE.

## Arguments In Favor:

1) Many of the features suggesting a hoax (failure to call for landing lights, the claim that he only filed a one-way flight plan, etc.) also support the idea that he never intended to return.

2) Judging by their quotes in the press, Valentich's family and girl friend were told different stories regarding his return. Miss Rushton told the papers that he was supposed to come back the same night to take her to a disco. The time she states for his return varies in different press accounts ("7 PM" in the DAILY TELEGRAPH, "7:30 PM" in the SUNDAY TELEGRAPH and "8 PM" according to Harry Griesburg), but the pilot could never have made it back before 9 PM. Conversely, he told his parents he intended to get back at 10 o'clock. "We were expecting him home," Mr. Valentich said, "because another family was having a social reunion and he was coming, too." Was he handing them all a line?

## Arguments Against:

1) Gary Groci, a family friend, stated that "Freddie was a very stable personality. He had a very happy family life, a nice girlfriend and was doing what he loved to do, which was flying. He enjoyed life far too much to want to kill himself."

2) Rhonda Rushton: "He was a very happy person and had lots of friends."

3) Why would he have pocketed $200 that morning (according to his parents) to purchase the crayfish if he wasn't planning to land?

Obviously, there is no clear way to choose among all of these possibilities with the information at hand. The Department of Transport says their files are "open" on this case in the absence of any "new leads", and with good reason. Strictly speaking, this case is a single-witness Nocturnal Light (or CE I, if you're not too fussy about distance requirements); furthermore, the witness is unavailable! Were it not for the dramatic implications of that "unavailability", the case would be minor in stature, instead of being hailed as the new "Capt. Mantell" or "Col. Coyne" episode of 1978. This case makes the 19th UFO entry in the Center for UFO Studies' computerized UFOCAT reference—out of 70,000 separate sightings—where a pilot was killed

or disappeared following a UFO encounter. In addition, the failure of the engine could be construed as typical of the "EM" (electro-magnetic) interference effects noted in over 800 cases. Say Guido Valentich, "I've been told that UFOs can cause a plane's engine to react the way my son reported his was. They seem to have some sort of electrical field which affects engines." "Seems", of course, is the key word here, since the other cases usually had the benefit of an engine or electrical system that can be restarted once the UFO departs the immediate area.

There are other arguments much harder to debate, naturally: the prospect of window reflections or less unlikely, hallucination, leading to a crash. Yet it is already safe to suspect that the files on this remarkable adventure will be open forever.

When Southern Air Services fills out their insurance claim on the loss of their $43,000 Cessna, what will they list as the cause of the loss?

## WERE OTHER UFO SIGHTINGS LINKED TO THE VALENTICH UFO?

Bass Strait has been the scene of UFO sightings throughout the 20th century. Back in 1896, hundreds of people were reporting "cigar-shaped" objects flying over the Strait Fred Valentich's sighting highlighted six weeks of UFO reports from this region, with reports submitted to the King Island police and the island's local paper. Sgt. J. Woodward of Currie, King Island was notified of strange lights appearing to the north of the island. An air and sea search was established but no source of the flare-like lights was found. Sept. 12th saw the sighting of "oval lights" which lit up the area like daylight, as seen on numerous occasions by a nurse in the company of others. These lights also disappeared when the witnesses went out to investigate.

A number of UFO sightings were disclosed to the press (and local UFO groups) which occurred on the same day as Fred Valentich's disappearance. Summaries of these cases appear below in chronological order:

(cont. on p. 10)