Did Australian pilot Frederick Valentich disappear or crash due to an attack by a UFO?  This week on Solvable Mysteries we investigate the bizarre and unsolved disappearance of Australian pilot Frederick Valentich, whose flight on October 21, 1978 led to a disappearance shortly after he radioed he was being followed and buzzed by a strange green spacecraft while flying in South Australia.  This was in or around Bass Strait, Cape Otway, between Melbourne and King Island.

On this week's show we review a case that is famous in the files of notable UFO encounters, the disappearance of Frederick Valentich in a Cessna 182.  Frederick was an amateur pilot who aspired to be a commercial pilot, and to join the RAAF (Royal Australian Air Force) as well.  Unfortunately, his skills were not yet up to task (he failed multiple qualification exams), but Frederick had over 150 flying hours and was very enthusiastic about flying.

This wasn't the only thing Valentich was enthusiastic for -- he had a very strong interest in UFO's and possible alien life, and was obsessed with encounters the public, and especially aviators, may have had with this phenomenon.  He came from a family that had some history of claims of meeting extraterrestrials, and coincidentally or not, it appears he may have had a run-in himself with a UFO, or at least his conversation with air traffic controllers implies he wanted them to think so.

We examine this controversial case and weigh the evidence -- Was Frederick Valentich a victim of a UFO encounter gone wrong, or did he die in the act of faking such an encounter?  Or was the entire thing a misunderstanding of a fatal flight condition, Frederick Valentich mistaking stars spiraling above him as an alien spaceship, while he slowly crashed into the ocean, a victim of vertigo and his own inability to fly in no-visibility conditions?

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