WEBVTT - Season 02 Episode 03: The Last Flight (RERUN) 0:00:00.080 --> 0:00:03.200 Hello, it's Richard maclin Smith here. Sadly, due to some 0:00:03.400 --> 0:00:06.760 very frustrating audio issues, this week's episode will be postponed 0:00:06.800 --> 0:00:09.720 until next week. On the flip side, I'm currently working 0:00:09.760 --> 0:00:13.120 on bringing Unexplained to video, so with any luck, from 0:00:13.200 --> 0:00:15.400 next week you'll be able to watch episodes as well 0:00:15.440 --> 0:00:18.360 as listen to them. Until then, we're going back to 0:00:18.400 --> 0:00:22.400 the archive for a rerun episode. It's been calculated that 0:00:22.480 --> 0:00:26.079 the likelihood of the human race being the only sophisticated 0:00:26.160 --> 0:00:28.800 life form in the Milky Way is a one in 0:00:28.960 --> 0:00:33.440 sixty billion chance. The Milky Way is one of two 0:00:33.600 --> 0:00:38.199 trillion galaxies in the observable Universe. The following story is 0:00:38.240 --> 0:00:41.720 considered by many eufologists to be among the most compelling 0:00:41.800 --> 0:00:45.880 pieces of evidence of an alien visitation to our planet. 0:00:45.960 --> 0:00:49.040 Just what happened in the skies off the coast of Melbourne, 0:00:49.080 --> 0:00:53.239 Australia in nineteen seventy eight has never fully been accounted for. 0:00:53.880 --> 0:00:58.640 It's a mystery that remains to this day unexplained. This 0:00:58.800 --> 0:01:14.640 is Unexplained, Season two, Episode three, The Last Flight. At 0:01:14.680 --> 0:01:18.480 one pm Eastern Time on Wednesday, February twenty second, two 0:01:18.520 --> 0:01:22.560 thousand seventeen, NASA held a live press conference to make 0:01:22.600 --> 0:01:27.800 an exciting announcement they had discovered a peculiar solar system 0:01:28.080 --> 0:01:32.320 located roughly forty light years from Earth. At the heart 0:01:32.360 --> 0:01:36.040 of the system was an ultra cool dwarf star. It 0:01:36.160 --> 0:01:40.160 was first spotted in twenty sixteen by astronomers using the 0:01:40.160 --> 0:01:44.800 Trappist telescope in Chile, and so it was named Trappist one. 0:01:45.880 --> 0:01:50.000 The star appeared to be orbited by two Earth sized planets. 0:01:51.120 --> 0:01:53.800 In the months that followed, a team of astronomers led 0:01:53.840 --> 0:01:57.120 by Michael Gillon from the University of Liege, working with 0:01:57.200 --> 0:02:02.440 NASA's Spitzer telescope, made a further incredible discovery. What they 0:02:02.520 --> 0:02:06.640 found was described by Spitzer Center manager Sean Carey as 0:02:06.680 --> 0:02:09.920 the most exciting discovery in the history of the department. 0:02:11.120 --> 0:02:15.079 What Hilon's team uncovered was not two Earth sized planets, 0:02:15.480 --> 0:02:19.880 but seven. Furthermore, three of the planets were found to 0:02:19.919 --> 0:02:23.880 be occupying the crucial Goldilocks zone, an area of orbit 0:02:24.120 --> 0:02:26.760 necessary for the potential for water to pool on a 0:02:26.800 --> 0:02:30.840 planet's surface. Such a discovery is the first time ever 0:02:31.160 --> 0:02:35.320 that so many potentially habitable planets had been found surrounding 0:02:35.360 --> 0:02:40.160 one single star. Not only that, but the masses and 0:02:40.240 --> 0:02:43.880 radii of these specific planets mark them out as possibly 0:02:43.919 --> 0:02:47.960 the best ever to warrant further investigation for life, or 0:02:48.000 --> 0:02:51.440 at the very least, a habitable ecosystem that could one 0:02:51.520 --> 0:02:56.919 day be explored. In the words of NASA's Associate Administrator 0:02:57.000 --> 0:03:01.720 of the Science Mission Directorate, Thomas Zebucan, the discovery gives 0:03:01.760 --> 0:03:04.840 us a hint that finding a second Earth is not 0:03:04.960 --> 0:03:09.240 just a matter of if, but when. What we have 0:03:09.360 --> 0:03:12.720 in this story is a major step forward towards answering 0:03:12.760 --> 0:03:14.760 one of the questions that is at the heart of 0:03:14.800 --> 0:03:20.720 so many of our philosophies, and that is are we alone? 0:03:20.919 --> 0:03:32.440 You're listening to Unexplained and I'm Richard maclin Smith also 0:03:32.520 --> 0:03:36.520 on the panel at NASA's February press conference with Sarah Seger, 0:03:37.080 --> 0:03:41.320 Professor of Planetary Science and Physics at MIT and author 0:03:41.360 --> 0:03:45.400 of the Seger equation. The equation is considered by some 0:03:45.680 --> 0:03:48.920 to be an improved rendering of the famous Drake equation. 0:03:50.520 --> 0:03:54.080 In nineteen sixty one, the astronomer and physicist doctor Frank 0:03:54.200 --> 0:03:58.720 Drake devised his equation to estimate the number of communicative 0:03:58.800 --> 0:04:02.880 extraterrestrial civilsations that are likely to exist in the Milky 0:04:02.880 --> 0:04:08.920 Way galaxy. Drake's equation takes into account a number of variables, 0:04:08.960 --> 0:04:12.360 such as the rate of star formation, the average number 0:04:12.360 --> 0:04:15.119 of planets that orbit stars, as well as to which 0:04:15.160 --> 0:04:20.320 fraction exactly such planets might actually host sophisticated life forms. 0:04:21.600 --> 0:04:24.880 Although the equation was intended partly as a point of discussion, 0:04:25.480 --> 0:04:28.480 many critics were quick to argue that any attempt to 0:04:28.640 --> 0:04:32.159 estimate such a number would involve too big a margin 0:04:32.200 --> 0:04:37.920 of error to be reliable. However, a recent paper published 0:04:37.960 --> 0:04:42.400 by astrobiologists Adam Frank of the University of Rochester and 0:04:42.480 --> 0:04:46.720 Woodruff Sullivan of the University of Washington offered an interesting 0:04:46.760 --> 0:04:51.279 new approach to the question. Rather than trying to estimate 0:04:51.400 --> 0:04:55.760 the possible number of other extraterrestrial civilisations in our galaxy, 0:04:56.680 --> 0:04:59.640 they instead asked what were the odds that the human 0:04:59.720 --> 0:05:04.359 rais might be the only one. Their answer equated to 0:05:04.440 --> 0:05:09.680 roughly a one in sixty billion chance. So, when you 0:05:09.720 --> 0:05:12.520 also consider that the Milky Way is thought to be 0:05:12.560 --> 0:05:16.360 only one of two trillion galaxies in the known observable universe, 0:05:16.920 --> 0:05:21.080 not only is it unfathomably unlikely that other civilizations don't 0:05:21.120 --> 0:05:24.520 exist in the universe, but it is entirely plausible that 0:05:24.680 --> 0:05:28.000 some may already have flourished and died out millions of 0:05:28.000 --> 0:05:33.400 times over before our own. We might then wonder, much 0:05:33.560 --> 0:05:37.200 like the great physicist and Ricofirmi, if it is so 0:05:37.440 --> 0:05:41.320 likely that other sophisticated life forms exist out there, why 0:05:41.320 --> 0:05:44.520 have we never seen them, to which many, of course 0:05:44.520 --> 0:05:49.799 would reply, but we have. The following story is considered 0:05:49.800 --> 0:05:52.880 by many euthologists to be amongst the best evidence of 0:05:52.880 --> 0:05:58.479 an alien visitation to our planet. What happened exactly in 0:05:58.520 --> 0:06:01.520 the skies just off the coast of Melbourne, Australia in 0:06:01.600 --> 0:06:05.960 nineteen seventy eight has never been fully accounted for. It 0:06:06.040 --> 0:06:16.520 is a mystery that remains to this day unexplained. It 0:06:16.640 --> 0:06:20.360 was love at first sight, and as is often the case, 0:06:20.560 --> 0:06:25.159 it was completely unplanned. It was some time in March 0:06:25.279 --> 0:06:29.279 nineteen seventy eight, and Ronda had only recently turned sixteen. 0:06:31.160 --> 0:06:34.039 That night, she was accompanying her neighbour's son Peter, to 0:06:34.120 --> 0:06:37.479 his regular Friday social event at the Flight sixteen Air 0:06:37.480 --> 0:06:44.120 Cadet headquarters in Maryborough, Melbourne. Peter had only recently joined 0:06:44.160 --> 0:06:47.200 the Australian Air Training Corps and was eager to share 0:06:47.240 --> 0:06:51.320 his exciting new world with Ronda. What he hadn't banked 0:06:51.360 --> 0:06:56.400 on was bumping into Fred. Peter had been showing Ronda 0:06:56.400 --> 0:06:59.200 around the company buildings when Fred stepped out of a 0:06:59.240 --> 0:07:05.000 nearby office and right into her path. He was dark haired, handsome, 0:07:05.200 --> 0:07:10.000 and elegant in his steel blue uniform. He introduced himself 0:07:10.040 --> 0:07:13.920 to Ronda as Fred Valentich before turning back to Peter. 0:07:15.240 --> 0:07:19.320 As the pair talked, Peter shifted uncomfortably whenever Fred's eyes 0:07:19.400 --> 0:07:24.720 glanced away towards Ronda. The next week, Peter was overjoyed 0:07:24.760 --> 0:07:27.440 when Ronda agreed to join him at the Cadet's Saturday 0:07:27.520 --> 0:07:31.880 night dance. Sadly for Peter, however, who Ronda was really 0:07:31.920 --> 0:07:37.320 hoping to see that night was Fred. Sure Enough, immediately 0:07:37.360 --> 0:07:40.600 after she arrived, she spotted him holding court with some 0:07:40.720 --> 0:07:44.440 friends at the back of the room. Unbeknownst to Ronda, 0:07:45.000 --> 0:07:47.920 Fred too had been hoping all evening that the two 0:07:47.960 --> 0:07:53.160 of them might meet again. There was only one problem, Peter, 0:07:54.400 --> 0:07:58.720 but Fred had a plan. It was well known that 0:07:58.760 --> 0:08:01.760 Peter's ill mother had given him a pager in case 0:08:01.800 --> 0:08:05.400 she might ever need him at short notice. At some 0:08:05.480 --> 0:08:08.280 point in the night, after waiting for just the right moment, 0:08:08.760 --> 0:08:13.280 Fred slipped away from his table to use the payphone outside. 0:08:13.480 --> 0:08:16.200 Moments later, he watched from the side of the hall 0:08:16.680 --> 0:08:19.480 as Peter received the message with a look of disappointment 0:08:19.560 --> 0:08:24.239 on his face. Of course, Fred KNEWTT was a cruel trick, 0:08:24.880 --> 0:08:28.960 but this was love, and sometimes that's all that matters. 0:08:30.040 --> 0:08:33.360 Peter gestured his apologies to Ronda and made his way 0:08:33.440 --> 0:08:36.679 out of the club. As Fred returned to the end 0:08:36.720 --> 0:08:39.440 of Ronda's table, he was almost certain he could see 0:08:39.440 --> 0:08:43.360 a look of relief cross her face. It hadn't gone 0:08:43.400 --> 0:08:46.920 unnoticed by Ronda that as the evening progressed, Fred seemed 0:08:46.920 --> 0:08:49.400 to be making his way further and further up the table, 0:08:50.040 --> 0:08:53.640 until finally he was sitting next to her, and so 0:08:53.760 --> 0:08:56.280 they would remain for the rest of the night as 0:08:56.280 --> 0:09:02.760 the hours drifted by timelessly. The following Monday, Fred met 0:09:02.840 --> 0:09:05.440 Ronda's parents, and by the end of the week the 0:09:05.480 --> 0:09:08.840 pair had agreed to make it official. A few weeks later, 0:09:09.320 --> 0:09:11.760 Ronda was introduced to Fred's family at his home in 0:09:11.840 --> 0:09:14.880 Avondale Heights, where she met and fell in love with 0:09:14.960 --> 0:09:19.040 his parents, Alberta and Guido, his twelve year old brother Ricky, 0:09:19.600 --> 0:09:24.240 and his two twin sisters, Olivia and Lara. It was 0:09:24.280 --> 0:09:26.920 easy to see why Ronda was so smitten by Fred. 0:09:27.600 --> 0:09:30.200 He was fun and easy to be around, kind and 0:09:30.240 --> 0:09:34.040 well mannered, not to mention dashing in his training Corps uniform. 0:09:35.240 --> 0:09:37.920 But there was one thing that would have to be accommodated. 0:09:39.120 --> 0:09:42.080 It was Fred's dream to be a commercial airline pilot, 0:09:42.480 --> 0:09:47.079 and he dedicated himself to the task obsessively. Every spare 0:09:47.120 --> 0:09:49.560 minute was spent at his flight school or with his 0:09:49.679 --> 0:09:53.760 nose buried inside one of his training text books. Meeting 0:09:53.840 --> 0:09:56.200 up on week nights was completely out of the question, 0:09:56.840 --> 0:09:58.880 but come the week end they were like any other 0:09:58.920 --> 0:10:03.040 teenage couple. Fred wasn't a big drinker, but he loved 0:10:03.080 --> 0:10:06.600 going out with Ronda, perhaps his favorite moments being the 0:10:06.640 --> 0:10:09.600 ones they spent on Mount Dandenong, where they would just 0:10:09.640 --> 0:10:12.240 sit and take in the view as the evening sun 0:10:12.320 --> 0:10:25.240 gave way to the Melbourne city lights. And when Fred 0:10:25.280 --> 0:10:28.360 got the chance to clock up more flight time, Ronda 0:10:28.520 --> 0:10:32.040 was only too happy to accompany him. She loved the 0:10:32.080 --> 0:10:35.360 sensation of it, especially when the plane would break through 0:10:35.400 --> 0:10:39.200 into brilliant sunshine, the cloud stretching out below like a 0:10:39.200 --> 0:10:42.480 soft blanket, almost as if you could step out and 0:10:42.600 --> 0:10:47.400 walk across it and up there alone with Fred. She'd 0:10:47.400 --> 0:10:50.439 never felt safer, even when he would loop the loop 0:10:50.640 --> 0:10:54.480 on one of his acrobatic flights. As Ronda got to 0:10:54.520 --> 0:10:57.360 know Fred a little better, there was one thing that 0:10:57.440 --> 0:11:01.320 stood out more than anything. It was his meticulous nature, 0:11:02.280 --> 0:11:04.920 whether it be making sure his car was running smoothly, 0:11:05.559 --> 0:11:08.200 the pride he took in how he dressed, or most 0:11:08.320 --> 0:11:12.960 markedly in his approach to his flight training. By mid May, 0:11:13.360 --> 0:11:16.240 Fred had clocked over one hundred and forty hours and 0:11:16.320 --> 0:11:19.360 had graduated to a Class four license, allowing him to 0:11:19.400 --> 0:11:23.600 fly at night. By way of celebration, Fred took Ronda 0:11:23.679 --> 0:11:26.400 on a six hundred mile flight to Spear's Point in 0:11:26.480 --> 0:11:31.199 Newcastle to visit her favorite uncle, Michael. It had been 0:11:31.240 --> 0:11:34.040 the perfect day, but the following morning, as the pair 0:11:34.120 --> 0:11:38.880 prepared to fly home, Fred seemed concerned. He was convinced 0:11:39.040 --> 0:11:42.520 that someone had tampered with the plane. After a short 0:11:42.520 --> 0:11:45.080 time in the air, the column on the joystick seemed 0:11:45.080 --> 0:11:49.120 to be loosening. Never one to leave anything to chance, 0:11:49.520 --> 0:11:53.440 Fred made an emergency descent towards Bankstown Airport in Sydney. 0:11:54.720 --> 0:11:58.560 Moments later, Much to his shock, a military helicopter appeared 0:11:58.559 --> 0:12:02.640 from nowhere and ordered out of the sky. In his 0:12:02.760 --> 0:12:06.559 eagerness to get the plane down, Fred had strayed marginally 0:12:06.760 --> 0:12:11.400 into a restricted airspace. Minutes later, Fred and Ronda touched 0:12:11.400 --> 0:12:14.880 down in Bankstown, but the incident would inevitably go down 0:12:14.880 --> 0:12:19.199 as a blemish on Fred's record. His abject disappointment in 0:12:19.280 --> 0:12:22.800 himself was a reminder to Ronda just how seriously he 0:12:22.840 --> 0:12:33.840 took his training. A few months later, on September seventeenth, 0:12:34.440 --> 0:12:37.480 just over four hundred miles south of Melbourne, across the 0:12:37.520 --> 0:12:41.480 bas Strait to the far side of Tasmania, a lighthouse 0:12:41.520 --> 0:12:46.040 keeper spotted something strange in the sky. The keeper worked 0:12:46.040 --> 0:12:49.679 at the Matsaika Island Lighthouse, located off the southern coast 0:12:49.760 --> 0:12:53.880 of mainland Tasmania. He had just completed his evening rounds 0:12:54.160 --> 0:12:57.880 when he noticed an unfamiliar light in the sky. It 0:12:58.000 --> 0:13:01.720 was extremely bright and appeared to be half moon in shape. 0:13:03.040 --> 0:13:05.600 Moments after he spotted it or the power in the 0:13:05.679 --> 0:13:12.520 lighthouse inexplicably cut out bizarrely. After rushing to fix the problem, 0:13:12.760 --> 0:13:16.360 the keeper found no blown fuses or tripped circuit breakers. 0:13:17.440 --> 0:13:21.040 Five minutes later, the generator kicked into action and the 0:13:21.080 --> 0:13:25.840 power was restored. The keeper returned to his previous lookout 0:13:25.880 --> 0:13:28.760 point to find the strange light still hanging in the 0:13:28.840 --> 0:13:33.320 night sky. A closer look with binoculars revealed what appeared 0:13:33.320 --> 0:13:35.480 to be a small red dot in the middle of 0:13:35.520 --> 0:13:38.520 the light, which seemed to move to the side as 0:13:38.520 --> 0:13:43.600 if the light was turning. Ten minutes later, the power 0:13:43.640 --> 0:13:47.400 cut out again and remained out for fifteen minutes before 0:13:47.400 --> 0:13:51.240 it was finally restored, but again with no obvious cause. 0:13:52.800 --> 0:13:56.520 Moments later, the lighthouse keeper watched as the strange light 0:13:56.640 --> 0:13:59.920 eventually began to shrink, as if moving away from the island, 0:14:00.520 --> 0:14:10.920 until it had completely disappeared. Back in Melbourne a few 0:14:10.920 --> 0:14:15.240 weeks later, on Friday thirteenth of October, Fred and Ronda 0:14:15.400 --> 0:14:18.199 drove to their favorite spot up in the Dandenong Ranges. 0:14:19.400 --> 0:14:22.720 That night, they talked for hours as down below the 0:14:22.840 --> 0:14:26.600 Yarra Valley stretched out before them, blanketed by the warm, 0:14:26.720 --> 0:14:31.520 luminescent glow of a setting spring sun. Fred had never 0:14:31.560 --> 0:14:35.520 been more happy. Having just turned twenty, he was passing 0:14:35.560 --> 0:14:38.160 his exams and was well on the way to becoming 0:14:38.200 --> 0:14:42.840 a commercial airline pilot, and of course, he also had Ronda. 0:14:44.480 --> 0:14:47.040 At some point, Fred pulled a box from his pocket 0:14:47.320 --> 0:14:50.480 and opened it to reveal a ring. Will you marry me? 0:14:50.680 --> 0:14:54.800 He asked. They'd known each other little over six months, 0:14:55.080 --> 0:14:58.480 but everything about this felt right. They laughed at the 0:14:58.520 --> 0:15:02.640 madness of it all. Ronda could barely hide her excitement 0:15:02.840 --> 0:15:06.040 as Fred slipped the friendship band onto her wedding ring finger. 0:15:07.080 --> 0:15:11.160 But then for a second she paused. Not only was 0:15:11.160 --> 0:15:14.240 it Friday the thirteenth, but wasn't it bad luck to 0:15:14.280 --> 0:15:17.320 place a friendship ring on the wedding ring finger? She thought, 0:15:18.480 --> 0:15:22.120 But Fred didn't believe in such things. Besides, she would 0:15:22.120 --> 0:15:25.920 have the real thing soon enough. In the meantime, he 0:15:26.000 --> 0:15:28.520 asked that she keep it all a secret until Ronda's 0:15:28.520 --> 0:15:34.200 seventeenth birthday in December. Ronda didn't see Fred for the 0:15:34.240 --> 0:15:37.480 rest of the week, preoccupied as he was, with preparations 0:15:37.520 --> 0:15:42.560 for his latest milestone, a flight across open water. But 0:15:42.720 --> 0:15:45.400 on the Friday, Fred drove to Ronda's house and the 0:15:45.440 --> 0:15:48.120 pair made arrangements to meet for the flight the next day. 0:15:49.280 --> 0:15:51.360 Ronda agreed that she would meet him at the airport 0:15:51.480 --> 0:15:54.760 if she could get off work in time before he 0:15:54.840 --> 0:15:58.720 left that night, they kissed on the doorstep, a kiss 0:15:58.800 --> 0:16:03.840 that seemed to last a life time. Next morning, on Saturday, 0:16:03.840 --> 0:16:06.960 October the twenty first, Fred was up at six a m. 0:16:07.240 --> 0:16:10.080 Buzzing with excitement as he went over the flight plans 0:16:10.080 --> 0:16:13.520 in his head. After completing a shift at the Aussie 0:16:13.520 --> 0:16:16.800 Disposal store at one through nine Puckle Street where he worked, 0:16:17.440 --> 0:16:21.040 Fred was soon on the freeway, racing towards Moorabin Airport 0:16:21.280 --> 0:16:25.480 in southeast Melbourne. Fred had a three hour lesson to 0:16:25.520 --> 0:16:28.560 negotiate before he could take his flight, but as was 0:16:28.560 --> 0:16:31.480 often his way, he arrived early, so he did what 0:16:31.560 --> 0:16:34.880 he always did in such circumstances. He took out his 0:16:34.920 --> 0:16:38.600 textbooks and revised until one thirty when the class began. 0:16:40.680 --> 0:16:43.800 Back in West Preston, Ronda was eagerly awaiting the end 0:16:43.800 --> 0:16:46.680 of her shift. She had arranged with her parents to 0:16:46.760 --> 0:16:49.560 drive her down to the airport after her shift, but 0:16:49.720 --> 0:16:53.360 was being held up by a delayed co worker. Ronda 0:16:53.480 --> 0:16:57.000 had no choice but to cover until she arrived, but 0:16:57.120 --> 0:17:01.400 as the minutes ticked by, Ronda lost her ride. She 0:17:01.440 --> 0:17:04.320 would miss this flight, but Fred would be home before long, 0:17:04.680 --> 0:17:07.959 and after all, she had the evening's dance to look forward. 0:17:08.000 --> 0:17:12.840 To down at Moorrabin Airport. Fred was disappointed not to 0:17:12.880 --> 0:17:15.960 find Ronda waiting for him by his car after the lesson. 0:17:16.920 --> 0:17:19.600 In truth, the thought of flying over the water alone 0:17:19.840 --> 0:17:23.720 made him a little nervous, but a quick meteorological briefing 0:17:24.040 --> 0:17:26.439 revealed that the weather would be on his side, and 0:17:26.520 --> 0:17:29.160 with sunset not due for another two hours, he would 0:17:29.160 --> 0:17:31.560 have more than enough time to complete the journey before 0:17:31.600 --> 0:17:36.119 it got dark. At seventeen twenty three hours, Fred lodged 0:17:36.119 --> 0:17:39.120 his flight plan at the briefing office. He would fly 0:17:39.280 --> 0:17:43.080 southwest along the coast to Cape Otway before heading south 0:17:43.280 --> 0:17:45.800 over the bas Strait to King Island at the north 0:17:45.800 --> 0:17:51.159 of Tasmania, before returning back to Moorabin Airport. There was 0:17:51.200 --> 0:17:53.680 still no sign of Ronda, but Fred decided to give 0:17:53.680 --> 0:17:56.000 her a few more minutes and headed off to grab 0:17:56.040 --> 0:17:58.920 some food. In the meantime. There was a new place 0:17:58.960 --> 0:18:01.120 that had just opened nearby that he liked to go, 0:18:01.920 --> 0:18:04.399 and so it was a short time later that Fred 0:18:04.480 --> 0:18:07.680 was sat in his car, eating McDonald's and gazing out 0:18:07.680 --> 0:18:12.160 wistfully at the sea he was soon to cross. When 0:18:12.160 --> 0:18:14.720 he finally made it back to the airport, with time 0:18:14.800 --> 0:18:17.960 running out and Ronda yet to arrive, Fred had little 0:18:18.000 --> 0:18:21.680 choice but to set off alone. After a further round 0:18:21.720 --> 0:18:25.040 of checks, he jumped into the Sesna vh D s 0:18:25.200 --> 0:18:27.600 J taxied the small plane to the edge of the 0:18:27.680 --> 0:18:38.640 runway before taking off into the early evening sky. Back 0:18:38.680 --> 0:18:41.960 in West Preston, Ronda had returned home and was getting 0:18:42.000 --> 0:18:44.840 herself ready for a night out with Fred, excited to 0:18:44.880 --> 0:18:48.080 hear all about his trip to King Island, but by 0:18:48.119 --> 0:18:50.720 the time it had got to eight pm, Ronda was 0:18:50.720 --> 0:18:54.080 growing concerned that there had been no word from Fred. 0:18:55.119 --> 0:18:58.600 Ronda never made it to the dance, but instead spent 0:18:58.680 --> 0:19:01.840 the night sat all made up on her bed, staring 0:19:01.840 --> 0:19:05.000 out her window at the street below for any sign 0:19:05.000 --> 0:19:09.840 of her fiance. At some point, she must have fallen asleep, 0:19:10.200 --> 0:19:12.480 as she found herself being woken by the sound of 0:19:12.520 --> 0:19:17.240 the ABC news drifting in from her father's bedroom. She 0:19:17.280 --> 0:19:19.800 couldn't quite make out all of it, only that an 0:19:19.880 --> 0:19:24.200 unnamed pilot had gone missing over the Baths Strait. Ronda's 0:19:24.200 --> 0:19:28.560 heart sunk deep into her chest. After taking an age 0:19:28.560 --> 0:19:32.080 to get through to Moorabin Airport, when they eventually picked up, 0:19:32.560 --> 0:19:40.200 Ronda received the devastating news the missing pilot was Fred. 0:19:40.440 --> 0:19:43.399 Over the next few days, wave after wave of search 0:19:43.440 --> 0:19:46.639 and rescue teams were dispatched unsuccessfully in the hunt for 0:19:46.680 --> 0:19:51.320 Fred's missing plane. For Rhonda and Fred's family, their grief 0:19:51.480 --> 0:19:56.879 would have been unimaginable For the authorities. There were plainly 0:19:56.920 --> 0:20:00.840 only two likelihoods. One that Reread had got into some 0:20:00.920 --> 0:20:05.399 kind of difficulty, perhaps becoming disorientated over the water, leading 0:20:05.400 --> 0:20:10.720 to a catastrophic pilot error, or he had deliberately flown 0:20:10.760 --> 0:20:16.280 his plane into the sea. Since Fred had been taking 0:20:16.320 --> 0:20:19.840 a routine path over a manageable stretch of water, as 0:20:19.880 --> 0:20:23.240 noted in the cause analysis report, it is most probable 0:20:23.359 --> 0:20:26.400 that the wreckage would have been sighted, but the plane 0:20:26.680 --> 0:20:32.160 had disappeared without a trace. And then something extraordinary came 0:20:32.200 --> 0:20:37.920 to light. On Wednesday, the twenty fifth of October, Fred's father, Guido, 0:20:38.320 --> 0:20:40.919 was invited to listen to the final recording of Fred's 0:20:40.960 --> 0:20:46.040 air traffic control communication to formally identify the pilot. As 0:20:46.080 --> 0:20:49.440 soon as the recording crackled to life, Guido's heart broke 0:20:49.520 --> 0:20:52.160 for the thousandth time as the voice of his son 0:20:52.600 --> 0:20:55.760 came out of the speaker. But what everybody in the 0:20:55.840 --> 0:21:09.399 room heard next chilled them all to the Bone. At 0:21:09.480 --> 0:21:14.160 nineteen hundred hours, Fred reported arriving successfully over Cape Otway 0:21:14.640 --> 0:21:19.720 before heading south over the open water. The next communication 0:21:20.320 --> 0:21:24.879 was received at nineteen hundred and six hours, Melbourne. This 0:21:24.960 --> 0:21:28.320 is Delta Sierra Juliet. Is there any known traffic below 0:21:28.359 --> 0:21:35.160 five thousand? Delta Sierra Juliet No known traffic. It seems 0:21:35.200 --> 0:21:38.960 to be a large aircraft below five thousand. What type 0:21:39.000 --> 0:21:42.880 of aircraft is it? I cannot affirm. It has four 0:21:42.920 --> 0:21:47.199 bright It seems to me like landing lights. Melbourne, this 0:21:47.280 --> 0:21:50.560 is Delta Sierra Juliet. The aircraft has just passed over 0:21:50.640 --> 0:21:54.520 me at least one thousand feet above Roger and it 0:21:54.560 --> 0:21:58.560 is a large aircraft. Confirm unknown due to the speed 0:21:58.640 --> 0:22:03.399 its traveling. Any air Force aircraft in the vicinity Delta 0:22:03.440 --> 0:22:08.880 Sierra Juliet. No known aircraft in the vicinity, Melbourne. It's 0:22:08.880 --> 0:22:12.040 approaching now from due east towards me. It seems to 0:22:12.080 --> 0:22:14.720 me that he's playing some sort of game. He's flying 0:22:14.760 --> 0:22:17.320 over me two three times at a time at speeds 0:22:17.359 --> 0:22:21.760 I could not identify. Delta Sierra Juliet and confirm you 0:22:21.800 --> 0:22:27.440 cannot identify the aircraft. Affirmative it's not an aircraft. It's 0:22:27.480 --> 0:22:31.119 a long shape. I cannot identify more than that. It 0:22:31.160 --> 0:22:34.960 has such speed. What I'm doing right now is orbiting, 0:22:35.040 --> 0:22:36.800 and the thing is just orbiting on top of me. 0:22:37.640 --> 0:22:40.600 It's got a green light and a sort of metallic 0:22:41.280 --> 0:22:44.760 like it's all shiny on the outside. It's just vanished. 0:22:46.280 --> 0:22:51.200 Delta Sierra Juliet confirmed that the aircraft has vanished. Ah. 0:22:51.400 --> 0:22:55.840 It's now approaching from the southwest. Roger, what are your intentions? 0:22:57.240 --> 0:23:01.120 My intentions are to go to King Island, Ah, Melbourne, 0:23:01.320 --> 0:23:03.720 that strange aircraft is hovering on top of me. Again. 0:23:04.440 --> 0:23:08.200 It's hovering and it's not an aircraft, and then there 0:23:08.240 --> 0:23:13.680 is nothing. Melbourne attempts communication again, but after seventeen seconds 0:23:13.720 --> 0:23:17.560 of dead air at nineteen hundred and twelve hours, Fred's 0:23:17.640 --> 0:23:29.920 radio falls silent. Within days, Fred's gripping final transmission made 0:23:29.960 --> 0:23:33.880 its way to the press. Before long, the papers were 0:23:33.880 --> 0:23:39.680 awash with speculation concerning Fred's fatal encounter with a UFO, 0:23:39.840 --> 0:23:46.120 and then something else emerged. Six weeks previously, Sergeant Jack 0:23:46.160 --> 0:23:49.720 Woodward of Curry Police on King Island had received a 0:23:49.760 --> 0:23:53.040 call concerning strange lights that had appeared off the north 0:23:53.080 --> 0:23:57.680 of the island. A nurse at King Island Hospital had 0:23:57.680 --> 0:24:01.200 seen them too, with two other witness going as far 0:24:01.359 --> 0:24:04.720 as to write into the King Island News on September twentieth. 0:24:05.520 --> 0:24:08.160 We are writing to your paper, they said, to see 0:24:08.200 --> 0:24:11.520 if anyone other than ourselves has seen any sightings of 0:24:11.600 --> 0:24:17.440 strange moving lights in the sky. The Department of Transport 0:24:17.560 --> 0:24:20.679 were quick to quash the rumours, with one spokesman suggesting 0:24:20.760 --> 0:24:23.520 that if Fred's plane had inverted, he would have seen 0:24:23.560 --> 0:24:27.320 the light from Cape Otway and King Island houses reflected 0:24:27.320 --> 0:24:30.760 on cloud cover above him. But not only were there 0:24:30.760 --> 0:24:33.760 no clouds in the sky that night, As the spokesman 0:24:33.840 --> 0:24:37.480 was forced to admit, the conditions were near perfect and 0:24:37.560 --> 0:24:43.760 would have afforded Fred almost unlimited vision. Reports from Fred's 0:24:43.800 --> 0:24:48.439 friends and acquaintances began to emerge. They revealed a sober, 0:24:48.640 --> 0:24:53.000 studious and diligent flight student with the steely determination to succeed, 0:24:53.920 --> 0:24:57.040 with one friend noting that Fred was never prone to panic, 0:24:57.640 --> 0:25:00.439 as Ronda had also attested during her many hours of 0:25:00.480 --> 0:25:05.240 flying with him. Fred's instructors, Warren Dunlop and Martin Dalton 0:25:05.640 --> 0:25:09.600 described him as sincere and sensible, a little quiet at first, 0:25:09.760 --> 0:25:14.119 but quick to open up once he got to know him. 0:25:19.240 --> 0:25:23.959 For Alberta and Guido, the evidence spoke for itself, and 0:25:24.040 --> 0:25:26.480 with the papers more than happy to exploit their grief 0:25:26.680 --> 0:25:30.320 for the cosmic speculation, there was little room for anything else. 0:25:32.080 --> 0:25:35.200 As for sixteen year old Ronda, she had barely had 0:25:35.200 --> 0:25:39.360 time to grieve, such was the incessant hounding of the press. 0:25:39.880 --> 0:25:42.520 At one point she even fled to a motel in 0:25:42.560 --> 0:25:45.840 Cape Otway, only to find a crowd of journalists waiting 0:25:45.880 --> 0:25:49.680 for her in the foyer. And the truth was there 0:25:49.680 --> 0:25:53.960 really was nothing more that she could tell them. After 0:25:54.000 --> 0:25:58.560 two weeks, the search for Fred was called off. However, 0:25:59.000 --> 0:26:01.679 although they may not have found the wreckage, in the 0:26:01.680 --> 0:26:05.560 subsequent widening of the investigation, something new was about to 0:26:05.560 --> 0:26:08.920 come to light. It seemed that Fred had not been 0:26:09.040 --> 0:26:14.560 entirely honest with his parents or Ronder. On November one, 0:26:15.040 --> 0:26:19.240 the investigative team received a letter from Captain Edwin Robert Barnes, 0:26:19.640 --> 0:26:24.359 a former tutor of Fred's in nineteen seventy six. Fred 0:26:24.359 --> 0:26:26.960 had failed in his attempt to join the Royal Australian 0:26:27.000 --> 0:26:31.200 Air Force. It was not entirely unexpected, since not only 0:26:31.200 --> 0:26:34.480 had Fred left school at sixteen, but his academic record 0:26:34.640 --> 0:26:38.399 had been poor, but Fred would not be deterred, and 0:26:38.480 --> 0:26:41.320 he resolved that whatever he lacked in intellect, he would 0:26:41.320 --> 0:26:45.840 work ferociously hard to make up for in effort. Although 0:26:45.880 --> 0:26:48.600 he would never realize his dream of making the Air Force, 0:26:49.040 --> 0:26:53.360 he could still make it as a commercial airline pilot. Sadly, 0:26:53.640 --> 0:26:56.879 this ambition, too, hit a snag when in nineteen seventy 0:26:56.920 --> 0:27:00.280 seven Fred sat for and failed all five of his 0:27:00.280 --> 0:27:04.800 commercial pilot's license theory exams. It was at this point 0:27:04.920 --> 0:27:09.359 that an instructor, impressed by Fred's determination, recommended that Captain 0:27:09.400 --> 0:27:14.920 Barnes helped dutor him through his resets. In Barnes letter, 0:27:15.440 --> 0:27:19.159 he speaks with great warmth and affection about the boy who, 0:27:19.240 --> 0:27:22.440 having not made it to the Air Force, nonetheless attended 0:27:22.440 --> 0:27:27.240 Squadron Headquarters in a civilian capacity, working without pay or allowances, 0:27:27.720 --> 0:27:32.960 until accepted into Squadron staff as an airman, a boy who, 0:27:33.040 --> 0:27:36.840 despite failing his exams, was a battler with the determination 0:27:37.080 --> 0:27:40.640 and stability to achieve his goal of becoming a commercial 0:27:40.640 --> 0:27:46.359 airline pilot. Fred eventually re sat his exams in July 0:27:46.440 --> 0:27:50.320 of nineteen seventy eight, and Barnes was overjoyed when Fred 0:27:50.359 --> 0:27:52.840