The Unknown podcast: The disappearance of Fred Valentich

The Geelong Advertiser’s Harrison Tippet presents the puzzling mystery of Fred Valentich - a young pilot who disappeared while flying over Bass Strait in 1978 after reporting a UFO encounter.

Fred Valentich who went missing while flying his plane to King Island in 1978.

It’s one of Australia’s most enduring mysteries - what happened to pilot Fred Valentich?

The 20-year-old aviator set out from Melbourne on a flight to King Island on October 21, 1978. In his last transmission while over Bass Strait, Fred reported a large, unknown aircraft was stalking him in the sky.

His last words to Melbourne airtraffic control were: “It is hovering and it is not an aircraft.”

No wreckage of Fred’s plane was ever found. His fate remains unknown. Forty years after Fred’s flight, Addy journalist Harrison Tippet looks into the case and examines the different theories surrounding his mysterious disappearance.

Originally published as The Unknown podcast: The disappearance of Fred Valentich