[Dear Reader, this is a link-article. Not artificially generated. Artfully curated for a critical thinking deep dive. Fun! – SN]
Oct 21, 2025.
“Frederick Valentich (ch as in CHina) was an Australian pilot who disappeared while on a 125-nautical-mile (232 km) flight in a Cessna 182L light aircraft, registered VH-DSJ, over Bass Strait.
On the evening of Saturday 21 October 1978, twenty-year-old Valentich informed Melbourne air traffic control that he was being accompanied by an aircraft about 1,000 feet (300 m) above him and that his engine had begun running roughly, before finally reporting: “It’s not an aircraft.”
There were belated reports of a UFO sighting in Australia on the night of the disappearance; however, the Department of Transport was sceptical that a UFO was behind Valentich’s disappearance, and some of their officials speculated that “Valentich became disorientated and saw his own lights reflected in the water, or lights from a nearby island, while flying upside down”
– Wikipedia
“He was probably flying upside down and didn’t realise he was looking at the reflection of his own lights in the water.”
“He didn’t realize he was upside down?”
“In poor visibility there’s a whole bunch of sensory illusions pilots can suffer from, including those related to spatial awareness, so it’s very possible.”
– Conversation on Reddit
“What really happened in the Australian skies on 21 October 1978?”
“A small plane is flying over Melbourne, Australia. It is night and darkness envelops the small aircraft. Suddenly, out of nowhere, the pilot realizes that he is being followed, just 300 meters above sea level, by another aircraft, but he is unable to decipher its type.”
“As the sun was setting, something strange appeared near Frederick’s plane and, confused, he radioed the control tower of the airport from which he had departed.
The conversation was recorded and transcribed. Today we can listen to a replica to record of the original one that was part of a private presentation of Dr. Richard Haines, a NASA scientist.
Here is the audio.”
– “… those caught up in the event, from Fred’s girlfriend to the air traffic controller who spoke to him in those final minutes, continue to wrestle with what happened that night and in the days and weeks that followed.
In this program, philosopher Patrick Stokes explores what the mystery of Frederick’s disappearance says about how we live with the past, and the power and limits of stories themselves.”
