The Disappearance of Frederick Valentich, 1978: The Pilot Who Vanished Over Bass Strait

A single-engine Cessna aircraft on an airfield

About 5 min readOn 21 October 1978, twenty-year-old pilot Frederick Valentich radioed Melbourne air traffic control about a strange aircraft pacing his Cessna over Bass Strait — and then his transmission ended in metallic noise. He was never found.