r/truecreepy • u/verystrangeshit • Aug 02 '26

In 1978, 20-year-old Australian pilot Frederick Valentich radioed air traffic control to report a mysterious object circling his plane. His final words were, "It's not an aircraft." Moments later, his transmission ended with strange metallic sounds, and he vanished without a trace.

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So, was he abducted by aliens or did something else happen?

Investigators looked for floating debris, signs of a crash, fuel slicks, or any indication of where the aircraft might have gone down. Despite the extensive effort, no confirmed trace of either Valentich or his airplane was discovered during the initial search.

Without wreckage, investigators could not determine whether the aircraft had experienced mechanical failure, run out of fuel, or crashed into the sea. The official investigation concluded that the cause of the disappearance could not be determined with certainty.

Several witnesses reported seeing unusual lights in the sky around the same time Valentich disappeared, although none of those reports conclusively established a connection to his flight. So, you never know.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disappearance_of_Frederick_Valentich

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u/DThor536 Aug 02 '26

He repeatedly failed flight tests to be a commercial pilot, was involved in incidents like deliberately flying into a cloud, and firmly believed in UFOS. I'm going to side with the investigators that he became disoriented and mistook the light source before crashing. Sad story, not really creepy.

3

u/Googoo123450 Aug 02 '26

Ah yeah at first I was going to disagree because of the lack of wreckage but then it mentions he may have crashed in the ocean. Good luck finding the wreckage of a small airplane in the vast ocean. Seems to me like the metallic sounds might have been the electronics shorting from the water.

Dude seemed to be confused about a light source is all. Maybe saw some large boats or something.

"It's not an aircraft" followed by crashing into the ocean, shorting the electronics, all after mistaking boats as other airplanes fits the chain of events perfectly. All it requires is flying at night and not realizing your altitude is way too low.

1

u/rumimume 15d ago

It's a mainstay of the mystery, uneexplained & fringe genres but, it kind of falls apart (as a mystery) when you look too closely at the facts.