CUFON Computer UFO Network Article #: 1 From: UFO INFO SERVICE Date Sent: 06-17-1986 Subject: 1978 AP PILOT DISAPPEARS SOURCE: AP MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA DATE: 25 OCTOBER 1978 AUSTRALIAN PILOT DISAPPEARS AFTER REPORTING CHASE BY UFO'S Boats and aircraft have found no trace of the 20-year old Australian pilot who disappeared with his plane on Saturday night after radioing that he was being chased by a UFO. Frederick Valentich was on a 125 mile training flight in his single engine Cessna 182 along the coast of Bass Strait when he told air traffic controllers in Melbourne that he was being buzzed by a UFO with 4 bright lights about 1000 feet above him. Controllers said his last message was taped and was: "It's approaching from due east towards me. It seems to be playing some sort of game... flying at a speed I can't estimate. It's not an aircraft. It's...It is flying past. It is a long shape. I cannot identify more than that. It's coming for me right now." A minute later: "It seems to be stationary. I'm also orbiting and the thing is orbiting on top of me also. It has a green light and a sort of metallic light on the outside." Valentich then radioed that his engine was running roughly. His last words were: "It is not an aircraft." The Australian Air Force said it had received 11 reports from people along the coast who said they saw UFOs on Saturday night, but the Transport Department was skeptical. Ken Williams, a spokesman for the department, said, "It's funny all these people ringing up with UFO reports well after Valentich's disappearance. It seems people often decide after the event, they too had seen strange lights. But although we can't take them too seriously, we can never discourgae such reports when investigating a plane's disappearance." Some Transport Dept officials have speculated that Valentich became disoriented and saw his own lights reflected in the water, or lights from a nearby island, while flying upside down. Valentich's father, Guio, said his son used to study UFOs "as a hobby using information he had received from the Air Force. He was not the kind of person who would make up stories. Everything had to be very correct and positive for him. The fact that they have found no trace of him really verifies the fact that UFOs could have been there." Guio Valentich said he hoped his son hadn't crashed but had been taken by a UFO. Article #: 2 From: UFO INFO SERVICE Date Sent: 06-17-1986 Subject: 1985 MISSING PHANTOM JET SOURCE: AP POST INTELLIGENCER, SEATTLE DATE: 24 MAY 1985 AIR FORCE HUNTS A MISSING PHANTOM PANAMA CITY, Fla. - Searchers combed the Gulf of Mexico yesterday for two Air Force pilots whose Phantom jet vanished in a cloud bank 50 miles off the Florida coast. A Coast Guard spokeswoman said three aircraft and a cutter were searching for the fighter, which disappeared Wednesday night. She said the jet was lst seen "banking into a cloud bank at 4,000 feet. No one has seen or heard from the jet or the pilot since." A Tyndall Air Force Base public affairs officer said searchers have no idea what happened to the F-4D and that the pilots, who were not identified, gave no indication of any problems. Article #: 3 From: UFO INFO SERVICE Date Sent: 06-17-1986 Subject: 1978 NEW ZEALAND ALERT SOURCE: AP AUCKLAND, NEW ZEALAND DATE: 02 JANUARY 1979 - SIGHTING DATE 21 DECEMBER 1978 A television news team from Melbourne, Australia says it filmed a UFO on Saturday night while flying over the Kaikoura region of New Zealand's South Island. Aviation authorities reported that the UFO was apparently tracked by radar as well, and the Royal New Zealand Air Force put a Skyhawk jet fighter on special standby alert. The pilot of the news team's plane said he first noticed a bright white light about 20 miles ahead, and "It appeared to stay still until we got within 10 miles, then it turned with us as I changed course. It then went above us and circled and came down beneath us. It was making definite movements in relation to us." PHOTOGRAPH: AP. UFO filmed by New Zealand news team.