Pilot Frederick M Valentich disappears after reporting encountering a UFO while flying a Cessna 182 (call sign Delta Sierra Juliet) across the Bass Strait from Melbourne to Hobart, Tasmania on 21st October 1978.
This incident is Case 35 in Isaac Koi's "Top 100" article, since it was referred to in 62 of the books covered by that article.
This incident came fifth in an online poll conducted in March/April 2006 by Paul Kimball of “the UFO case with the ‘best evidence’ ever”.
As part of a survey of various researchers of the “most evidential” UFO case, British ufologists Robert Rosamond and John Spencer produced a joint response which discussed this incident.
Web Resources
Wikipedia article at : Valentich disappearance (1978)
This incident is discussed on the AboveTopSecret.com (“ATS”) internet discussion forums in Thread 209152.{text}
Book References
Transcript of Valentich’s voice tape provided by Haines, Richard in his “Melbourne Episode: Case Study of a Missing Pilot” (1987) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 271-273 (Appendix 12 generally) of the LDA softcover edition.
For discussion of the Valentich incident see the following:
Year |
Discussion by:
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No. of Pages |
Altshuler, John H in “Alien Discussions: Abduction Study Conference Held at M. I. T.” (1994) (edited by Andrea Pritchard et al.) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 169-170 (in Chapter 2, unnumbered sub-chapter entitled “An Unusual Case That Doesn’t Fit”) of the North Cambridge Press hardback edition. |
2 |
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Baker, Alan in his “The Encyclopaedia of Alien Encounters” (1999) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 248-249 (in an entry entitled “Valentich, Frederick”) of the Virgin hardback edition. |
2 |
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Blundell, Nigel and Boar, Roger in “The World’s Greatest Alien Abduction Mysteries” (2001) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at page 439 (in the chapter entitled “Encounters of the Aerial Kind”) of the Chancellor Press softcover edition. |
1 |
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Blundell, Nigel and Boar, Roger in their “The World’s Greatest UFO Mysteries” (1986) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at page 178 (in the chapter entitled “Encounters of the Aerial Kind”) of the Octopus hardback edition (with the same page numbering in the Hamlyn softcover edition). |
1 |
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Blundell, Nigel in his “World’s Most Amazing UFO Visits” (1996) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 139-145 of the Select softcover edition. |
7 |
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Brookesmith, Peter in his “UFO: The Complete Sightings Catalogue” (1995) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at page 115 (in Chapter 5) of the BCA hardback edition (with the same page numbering in the Blitz hardback edition, and in the Barnes & Noble hardback edition published under the title “UFO: The Complete Sightings”). |
1 |
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Brookesmith, Peter in his “UFO: The Government Files” (1996) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at page 135 (in Chapter 7) of the Parragon hardback edition. |
1 |
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Campbell, Steuart in his “The UFO Mystery Solved” (1994) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at page 82 (in Chapter 4) of the Explicit Books softcover edition. |
1 |
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Cawthorne, Nigel in “The World’s Greatest Alien Abduction Mysteries” (2001) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 159-160 (in the chapter entitled “Abductions World-Wide”) of the Chancellor Press softcover edition. |
2 |
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Cawthorne, Nigel in his “The World’s Greatest Alien Abductions” (1999) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at page 122 (in the chapter entitled “Abductions World-Wide”) of the Hamlyn softcover edition. |
1 |
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Chalker, Bill in Jerome Clark’s “The UFO Book: Encyclopedia of the Extraterrestrial” (1998) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 615-622 of the Visible Ink Press softcover edition in an entry entitled “Valentich Disappearance”. |
8 |
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Chalker, Bill in Jerome Clark’s “The UFO Encyclopedia: 1st edition: Volume 3 – High Strangeness” (1996) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 537-543 of the Omnigraphics hardback edition in an entry entitled “Valentich Disappearance”. Also briefly Bill Chalker at page 509 forming part of an entry entitled “UFOs in Australia and New Zealand, 1960-1979”. |
7 |
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Chalker, Bill in Jerome Clark’s “The UFO Encyclopedia: 1st edition: Volume 2 – Emergence of a Phenomenon” (1992) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at page 338 of the Omnigraphics hardback edition in an entry entitled “UFOs in Australia and New Zealand through 1959”. |
1 |
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Chalker, Bill in Jerome Clark’s “The UFO Encyclopedia: The Phenomenon from the Beginning - 2nd edition” (1998) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) in Volume 2:L-Z at pages 964-968 (in an entry entitled “Valentich Disappearance”). |
5 |
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Chalker, Bill in “The Encyclopedia of Extraterrestrial Encounters” (2001) (edited by Ronald Story) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 628-631 (in an entry entitled “Valentich (Bass Strait, Australia) UFO encounter”) of the New American Library softcover edition, at pages 615-618 of the pdf edition (with the same page numbering in the Microsoft Word edition). |
4 |
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Chalker, Bill in “The Encyclopedia of UFOs” (1980) edited by Ronald Story (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 379-380 (in an entry entitled “Valentich – Bass Strait (Australia) affair”) of the NEL hardback edition. |
2 |
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Chalker, Bill in “The Mammoth Encyclopedia of Extraterrestrial Encounters” (2001) (edited by Ronald Story) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 754-757 (in an entry entitled “Valentich (Bass Strait, Australia) UFO encounter”) of the Robinson softcover edition. |
3 |
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Charles Bowen in the weekly partwork “The Unexplained” (1983?), Volume 2, pages 459-460. |
2 |
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Clark, Jerome in his “Strange Skies: Pilot Encounters with UFOs” (2003) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 164-169 (in Chapter 7) of the Citadel softcover edition. |
6 |
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Devereux, Paul and Brookesmith, Peter in their “UFOs and Ufology – the first 50 years” (1997) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at page 51 (in Chapter 4) of the Blandford softcover edition. |
1 |
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Fawcett, George and Greenwood, Barry in their “Clear Intent” (1984) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 93-96 (in Chapter 6) of the Spectrum softcover edition (with the same page numbering in the Fireside softcover edition published under the title “The UFO Cover-Up”). |
4 |
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Fuller, John G in his “The Interrupted Journey” (1966) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at at page 376 (in the unnumbered chapter entitled “Epilog to New Edition”) of the revised Corgi paperback edition. |
1 |
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Gansberg, Alan and Gansberg, Judith in their “Direct Encounters: The Personal Histories of UFO Abductees” (1980) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at page 51 (in Chapter 2) of the Walker & Co hardback edition. |
1 |
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Garrett, Richard in his “Aliens From Outer Space” (1983) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 107-108 (in Chapter 8) of the Piccolo paperback edition. |
2 |
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Glenday, Craig in his “The UFO Investigator’s Handbook” (1999) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 40 (in Chapter 1), 131 (in Chapter 6) of the Running Press softcover edition. |
2 |
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Good, Timothy in his “Above Top Secret” (1987) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 170-177 (in Chapter 7), with the image of relevant contemporaneous document at pages 457-459 (in the Appendix), of the Sidgwick & Jackson hardback edition (with the same page numbering in the Guild Publishing hardback edition and the Grafton paperback edition). |
11 |
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Good, Timothy in his “Alien Base” (1998) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at page 349 (in Chapter 17) of the Century hardback edition. |
1 |
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Good, Timothy in his “Beyond Top Secret” (1996) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 168-170, 174-178 (in Chapter 9), with the image of relevant contemporaneous document at pages 171-173 (in Chapter 9), of the Sidgwick & Jackson hardback edition (with the same page numbering in the Pan paperback edition). |
11 |
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Haines, Richard in his “Melbourne Episode: Case Study of a Missing Pilot” (1987) generally, particularly at pages 5-7 (in the Preface), 10, 16-24, 39-246 of the LDA softcover edition. Transcript of Valentich’s voice tape at pages 271-273 (Appendix 12 generally). |
221 |
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Hall, Richard in “The UFO Evidence: Volume 2 – A Thirty Year Report” (2001) (edited by Richard Hall) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 23 (in the unnumbered chapter entitled “Master Chronology”), 138-140 (in Section 3, “Pilot and Aircrew Sightings”) of the Scarecrow Press hardback edition. |
4 |
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Hall, Richard in his “Uninvited Guests” (1988) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at page 35 (in Chapter 1), 298-299 (in Appendix A) of the Aurora Press paperback edition. |
3 |
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Hansen, Terry in his “The Missing Times : News Media Complicity in the UFO Cover-Up : News Media Complicity in the UFO Cover -Up” (2000) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 50 (in Chapter 1), 200 (in Chapter 5) of the Xlibris softcover edition. |
2 |
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Hind, Cynthia in her “UFOs : African Encounters” (1982) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 199-202 (in Chapter 19) of the Gemini paperback edition. |
4 |
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Included in a list entitled “Chronological list of UFO sightings” by Margaret Sachs in her “The UFO Encyclopedia“ (1980 (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at page ix of the Corgi softback edition. |
1 |
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Jackson, Robert in his “UFOs” (1992) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at page 19 (in the unnumbered chapter entitled “Shot Down By UFOs?”) of the Smithmark hardback edition. |
1 |
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Maccabee, Bruce in Richard Haines’ “Melbourne Episode: Case Study of a Missing Pilot” (1987) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 1-2, 3-4 (in the Foreword) of the LDA softcover edition. |
4 |
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Michaels, Susan in her “Sightings: UFOs” (1997) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 143-154 (in the unnumbered chapter entitled “Into Oblivion”) of the Fireside softcover edition. |
12 |
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Nixon, Neil in his “Pocket Essentials : UFOs” (2002) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 62-63 (in Chapter 4) of the Pocket Essentials softcover edition. |
2 |
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Paul Norman in John Spencer’s “UFOs: The Definitive Casebook” (1991) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 160-161 (in the unnumbered section entitled “Australasia”, in the chapter entitled “The Australasian Perspective”) of the Hamlyn hardback edition. |
2 |
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Pope, Nick in his “Open Skies, Closed Minds” (1996) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 193-194 (in Chapter 11) of the Simon and Schuster hardback edition, with the same page numbering in the Pocket Books paperback edition. |
2 |
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Randle, Kevin and Estes, Russ in their “Spaceships of the Visitors” (1997) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 194-196 (in Part 4) of the Fireside softcover edition. |
3 |
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Randle, Kevin in his “Project Moon Dust” (1998) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 172-177, 178 (in Chapter 9) of the Avon softcover edition. |
7 |
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Randles, Jenny and Hough, Peter in their “50 Years of UFO Encounters” (1996) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 69-70 (in unnumbered section entitled “1978: Downed by a UFO?”) of the Encounters Magazine softcover edition. |
2 |
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Randles, Jenny and Hough, Peter in their “Death By Supernatural Causes?" (1988) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 15-40 (Chapter 1 generally) of the Grafton paperback edition. |
26 |
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Randles, Jenny in “The UFO Conspiracy” (1987) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 154-156 (in Chapter 25) of the Barnes & Noble hardback edition. |
3 |
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Randles, Jenny in her “Aliens” (1993) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 77-78 (in Part 3) of the Hale hardback edition (with the same page numbering in the Sterling softcover edition published under the title “Alien Contacts and Abductions”). |
2 |
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Randles, Jenny in her “Something in the Air” (1998) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 11 (in the Introduction), 139-143, 144 (in Chapter 10) of the Hale hardback edition. |
7 |
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Randles, Jenny in her “The Little Giant Encyclopedia of UFOs” (2000) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 92 (in Part 1, “A UFO Timeline”), 258 (in Part 3, “UFOs Worldwide”) of the Sterling softcover edition. |
2 |
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Randles, Jenny in her “The Unexplained: Great Mysteries of the 20th Century” (1994) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 112-113 (in the unnumbered chapter entitled “1970-1979”) of the Index hardback edition. |
2 |
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Randles, Jenny in her “UFO Study” (1981) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 61-62 (in Chapter 4) of the Hale hardback edition. |
2 |
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Randles, Jenny in her “UFOs and How to See Them” (1992) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 81, 82 (in Chapter 4) of the Brockhampton Press hardback edition. |
2 |
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Ritchie, David in his “UFO : The Definitive Guide” (1994) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at page 223 (in an entry entitled “Valensole incident, France”) of the MJF hardback edition. |
1 |
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Rux, Bruce in his “Architects of the Underworld” (1996) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at page 46 (in Chapter 2) of the Frog softcover edition. |
1 |
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Sachs, Margaret in her “The UFO Encyclopedia“ (1980 (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at page 197 (in an entry entitled “Melbourne, Australia”) of the Corgi softback edition. |
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Spencer, John and Evans, Hilary in “Phenomenon“ (1988) (edited by John Spencer and Hilary Evans) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 70-75 of the MacDonald hardback edition (Part |
6 |
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Spencer, John and Spencer, Anne in their “Fifty Years of UFOs” (1997) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 111-113 (in the unnumbered chapter entitled “1977-1987”) of the Boxtree hardback edition. |
3 |
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Spencer, John in his “The UFO Encyclopedia” (1991) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 308-309 (in an entry entitled “Valentich, Frederick”) of the Guild hardback edition (with the same page numbering in the Avon softcover edition) at page 365 of the Headline paperback edition. |
2 |
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Spencer, John in his “UFOs: The Definitive Casebook” (1991) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 169-172 (in the unnumbered section entitled “Australasia”, in the chapter entitled “Database”) of the Hamlyn hardback edition. |
4 |
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Stacy, Dennis in “UFO: 1947-1997” (1997) (edited by Hilary Evans and Dennis Stacy) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at page 13 (in the Section entitled “Introduction”, in an unnumbered chapter entitled “Eight Days that Shaped Ufology”) of the John Brown hardback edition. |
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Steiger, Brad in his “The UFO Abductors” (1988) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 26-29 (in Chapter 2) of the Berkley paperback edition. |
4 |
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Vallee, Jacques in his “Confrontations: A Scientist's Search for Alien Contact“ (1990) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at page 113 (in Chapter 9) of the Ballantine Books paperback edition. |
1 |
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Wright, Susan in her “UFO Headquarters” (1998) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at page 146 (in Chapter 8) of the St Martin’s Press softcover edition. |
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