WEBVTT - S02 Episode 3: The Last Flight 0:00:10.400 --> 0:00:14.080 At one pm Eastern Time on Wednesday, February the twenty second, 0:00:14.240 --> 0:00:18.160 two thousand and seventeen, NASA held a live press conference 0:00:18.280 --> 0:00:23.040 to make an exciting announcement. They had discovered a peculiar 0:00:23.079 --> 0:00:27.960 solar system located roughly forty light years from Earth. At 0:00:27.960 --> 0:00:30.720 the heart of the system was an ultra cool dwarf star. 0:00:31.880 --> 0:00:34.959 It was first spotted in two thousand and sixteen by 0:00:35.000 --> 0:00:39.080 astronomers using the Trappist telescope in Chile, and so it 0:00:39.200 --> 0:00:43.640 was named Trappist one. The star appeared to be orbited 0:00:43.760 --> 0:00:48.199 by two Earth sized planets. In the months that followed, 0:00:48.400 --> 0:00:51.159 a team of astronomers led by Michael Gillon from the 0:00:51.280 --> 0:00:55.440 University of Liege, working with NASA's Spitzer telescope, made a 0:00:55.480 --> 0:01:00.200 further incredible discovery. What they found was described by bits 0:01:00.240 --> 0:01:04.000 A Center manager Shawn Carey as the most exciting discovery 0:01:04.360 --> 0:01:08.720 in the history of the department. What Chillon's team uncovered 0:01:09.120 --> 0:01:14.679 was not two Earth sized planets, but seven. Furthermore, three 0:01:14.720 --> 0:01:17.240 of the planets were found to be occupying the crucial 0:01:17.319 --> 0:01:21.399 Goldilocks zone, an area of orbit necessary for the potential 0:01:21.520 --> 0:01:24.880 for water to a pool on a planet's surface. Such 0:01:24.920 --> 0:01:27.840 a discovery is the first time ever that so many 0:01:27.920 --> 0:01:32.560 potentially habitable planets had been found surrounding one single star. 0:01:34.240 --> 0:01:37.080 Not only that, but the masses and radii of these 0:01:37.080 --> 0:01:40.560 specific planets mark them out as possibly the best ever 0:01:40.959 --> 0:01:44.839 to warrant further investigation for life, or at the very least, 0:01:45.120 --> 0:01:50.640 a habitable ecosystem that could one day be explored. In 0:01:50.680 --> 0:01:54.560 the words of nassa's Associate Administrator of the Science Mission Directorate, 0:01:54.840 --> 0:01:58.560 Thomas Sir Buchan, the discovery gives us a hint that 0:01:58.760 --> 0:02:01.800 finding a second Earth is not just a matter of if, 0:02:02.360 --> 0:02:06.720 but when. What we have in this story is a 0:02:06.760 --> 0:02:09.720 major step forward towards answering one of the questions that 0:02:09.880 --> 0:02:12.240 is at the heart of so many of our philosophies, 0:02:12.760 --> 0:02:18.720 and that is are we alone? You're listening to Unexplained, 0:02:19.160 --> 0:02:28.600 and I'm Richard McClane Smith. Also on the panel at 0:02:28.680 --> 0:02:33.440 nassa's February press conference was Sarah Seeger, professor of planetary 0:02:33.480 --> 0:02:37.679 Science and Physics at MIT and author of the Seeger equation. 0:02:38.639 --> 0:02:41.799 The equation is considered by some to be an improved 0:02:41.840 --> 0:02:46.880 rendering of the famous Drake equation. In nineteen sixty one, 0:02:47.120 --> 0:02:51.359 the astronomer and physicist doctor Frank Drake devised his equation 0:02:51.680 --> 0:02:56.400 to estimate the number of communicative extraterrestrial civilizations that are 0:02:56.440 --> 0:03:01.440 likely to exist in the Milky Way galaxy. Drake's equation 0:03:01.639 --> 0:03:04.800 takes into account a number of variables, such as the 0:03:04.919 --> 0:03:08.160 rate of star formation, the average number of planets that 0:03:08.320 --> 0:03:11.960 orbit stars, as well as to which fraction exactly such 0:03:12.000 --> 0:03:17.760 planets might actually host sophisticated life forms. Although the equation 0:03:17.840 --> 0:03:21.440 was intended partly as a point of discussion, many critics 0:03:21.480 --> 0:03:24.560 were quick to argue that any attempt to estimate such 0:03:24.560 --> 0:03:27.880 a number would involve too big a margin of error 0:03:28.000 --> 0:03:34.520 to be reliable. However, a recent paper published by astrobiologists 0:03:34.639 --> 0:03:38.640 Adam Frank of the University of Rochester and Woodruff Sullivan 0:03:38.960 --> 0:03:42.560 of the University of Washington offered an interesting new approach 0:03:42.760 --> 0:03:47.160 to the question. Rather than trying to estimate the possible 0:03:47.280 --> 0:03:52.520 number of other extraterrestrial civilizations in our galaxy, they instead 0:03:52.560 --> 0:03:55.640 asked what were the odds that the human rays might 0:03:55.720 --> 0:04:00.560 be the only one. Their answer equated to roughly a 0:04:00.680 --> 0:04:05.720 one in sixty billion chants. So, when you also consider 0:04:05.840 --> 0:04:08.240 that the Milky Way is thought to be only one 0:04:08.240 --> 0:04:12.200 of two trillion galaxies in the known observable universe. Not 0:04:12.360 --> 0:04:16.680 only is it unfathomably unlikely that other civilizations don't exist 0:04:16.680 --> 0:04:20.040 in the universe, but it is entirely plausible that some 0:04:20.160 --> 0:04:23.520 may already have flourished and died out millions of times 0:04:23.600 --> 0:04:28.760 over before our own. We might then wonder, much like 0:04:28.880 --> 0:04:32.920 the great physicist Rico Fermi, if it is so likely 0:04:33.000 --> 0:04:36.600 that other sophisticated life forms exist out there, why have 0:04:36.720 --> 0:04:40.320 we never seen them, to which many, of course would reply, 0:04:41.160 --> 0:04:45.400 but we have. The following story is considered by many 0:04:45.480 --> 0:04:48.560 ufologists to be amongst the best evidence of an alien 0:04:48.640 --> 0:04:54.320 visitation to our planet. What happened exactly in the skies 0:04:54.360 --> 0:04:57.600 just off the coast of Melbourne, Australia in nineteen seventy 0:04:57.600 --> 0:05:01.440 eight has never been fully accounted for. It is a 0:05:01.520 --> 0:05:11.600 mystery that remains to this day unexplained. It was love 0:05:11.720 --> 0:05:15.280 at first sight, and as is often the case, it 0:05:15.360 --> 0:05:20.239 was completely unplanned. It was some time in March nineteen 0:05:20.240 --> 0:05:26.280 seventy eight, and Ronda had only recently turned sixteen. That night, 0:05:26.480 --> 0:05:29.279 she was accompanying her neighbor's son Peter to his regular 0:05:29.320 --> 0:05:33.120 Friday social event at the Flight sixteen Air Cadet headquarters 0:05:33.440 --> 0:05:39.479 in Maryborough, Melbourne. Peter had only recently joined the Australian 0:05:39.480 --> 0:05:41.919 Air Training Corps and who was eager to share his 0:05:42.000 --> 0:05:46.000 exciting new world with Ronda. What he hadn't banked on 0:05:46.480 --> 0:05:51.240 was bumping into Fred. Peter had been showing Ronda round 0:05:51.240 --> 0:05:54.240 the company buildings when Fred stepped out of a nearby 0:05:54.279 --> 0:05:58.720 office and write into her path. He was dark haired, 0:05:59.080 --> 0:06:04.200 handsome and elegant in his steel blue uniform. He introduced 0:06:04.240 --> 0:06:08.480 himself to Ronda as Fred Valentiic, before turning back to Peter. 0:06:09.800 --> 0:06:13.880 As the pair talked, Peter shifted uncomfortably whenever Fred's eyes 0:06:14.000 --> 0:06:19.280 glanced away towards Ronda. The next week, Peter was overjoyed 0:06:19.320 --> 0:06:22.040 when Ronda agreed to join him at the Cadet's Saturday 0:06:22.120 --> 0:06:26.480 night dance. Sadly for Peter, however, who Ronda was really 0:06:26.480 --> 0:06:31.920 hoping to see that night was Fred. Sure Enough, immediately 0:06:31.960 --> 0:06:35.200 after she arrived, she spotted him holding court with some 0:06:35.320 --> 0:06:39.000 friends at the back of the room. Unbeknownst to Ronda, 0:06:39.560 --> 0:06:42.520 Fred too had been hoping or evening that the two 0:06:42.520 --> 0:06:47.760 of them might meet again. There was only one problem, Peter, 0:06:48.960 --> 0:06:53.240 but Fred had a plan. It was well known that 0:06:53.360 --> 0:06:56.360 Peter's ill mother had given him a pager in case 0:06:56.360 --> 0:07:00.400 she might ever need him at short notice some point 0:07:00.400 --> 0:07:02.880 in the night. After waiting for just the right moment, 0:07:03.320 --> 0:07:06.920 Fred slipped away from his table to use the payphone outside. 0:07:08.040 --> 0:07:10.800 Moments later, he watched from the side of the hall 0:07:11.240 --> 0:07:14.080 as Peter received the message with a look of disappointment 0:07:14.120 --> 0:07:18.200 on his face. Of course, Fred knew it was a 0:07:18.240 --> 0:07:22.240 cruel trick, but this was love, and sometimes that's all 0:07:22.240 --> 0:07:27.560 that matters. Peter gestured his apologies to Ronda and made 0:07:27.600 --> 0:07:31.040 his way out of the club. As Fred returned to 0:07:31.040 --> 0:07:33.600 the end of Ronda's table, he was almost certain he 0:07:33.600 --> 0:07:37.440 could see a look of relief across her face. It 0:07:37.480 --> 0:07:40.680 hadn't gone unnoticed by Ronda that as the evening progressed, 0:07:40.920 --> 0:07:43.280 Fred seemed to be making his way further and further 0:07:43.400 --> 0:07:46.560 up the table, until finally he was sitting next to her, 0:07:47.920 --> 0:07:49.880 and so they would remain for the rest of the 0:07:50.000 --> 0:07:56.200 night as the hours drifted by timelessly. The following monday, 0:07:56.680 --> 0:07:59.440 Fred met Ronda's parents, and by the end of the 0:07:59.440 --> 0:08:02.680 week the pair had agreed to make it official. A 0:08:02.720 --> 0:08:05.920 few weeks later, Ronda was introduced to Fred's family at 0:08:05.920 --> 0:08:08.880 his home in Avondale Heights, where she met and fell 0:08:08.960 --> 0:08:12.600 in love with his parents, Alberta and Guido, his twelve 0:08:12.680 --> 0:08:16.160 year old brother Ricky, and his two twin sisters, Olivia 0:08:16.240 --> 0:08:20.320 and Laura. It was easy to see why Ronda was 0:08:20.360 --> 0:08:23.360 so smitten by Fred. He was fun and easy to 0:08:23.400 --> 0:08:27.120 be around, kind and well mannered, not to mention dashing 0:08:27.200 --> 0:08:30.760 in his training Corps uniform. But there was one thing 0:08:30.960 --> 0:08:34.760 that would have to be accommodated. It was Fred's dream 0:08:34.960 --> 0:08:38.320 to be a commercial airline pilot, and he dedicated himself 0:08:38.360 --> 0:08:42.600 to the task obsessively. Every spare minute was spent at 0:08:42.600 --> 0:08:45.640 his flight school or with his nose buried inside one 0:08:45.679 --> 0:08:50.000 of his training textbooks. Meeting up on weeknights was completely 0:08:50.040 --> 0:08:52.880 out of the question, but come the weekend they were 0:08:52.920 --> 0:08:56.840 like any other teenage couple. Fred wasn't a big drinker, 0:08:57.040 --> 0:09:00.319 but he loved going out with Ronda, perhaps his favorite 0:09:00.360 --> 0:09:03.720 moments being the ones they spent on Mount Dandenong, where 0:09:03.720 --> 0:09:06.040 they would just sit and take in the view as 0:09:06.080 --> 0:09:09.200 the evening sun gave way to the Melbourne city lights. 0:09:12.600 --> 0:09:15.400 Are you always taking care of your family? Do you 0:09:15.440 --> 0:09:18.560 often take care of others and not yourself. Now, it's 0:09:18.600 --> 0:09:22.080 time to take care of yourself, to make time for you. 0:09:22.080 --> 0:09:25.520 You deserve it. Teledoc gives you access to a licensed 0:09:25.559 --> 0:09:28.360 therapist to help you get back to feeling your best, 0:09:28.640 --> 0:09:32.640 to feeling like yourself again. With teledoc, you can speak 0:09:32.640 --> 0:09:36.439 to a licensed therapist by phone or video. Therapy appointments 0:09:36.440 --> 0:09:39.320 are available seven days a week from seven am to 0:09:39.440 --> 0:09:43.840 nine pm local time. If you feel overwhelmed sometimes maybe 0:09:43.840 --> 0:09:47.920 you feel stressed or anxious, depressed or lonely, or you 0:09:48.000 --> 0:09:51.520 might be struggling with a personal or family issue, teledoc 0:09:51.600 --> 0:09:56.240 can help. Teledoc is committed to facilitating great therapeutic matches, 0:09:56.520 --> 0:09:59.120 so they make it easy to change counselors if needed. 0:09:59.320 --> 0:10:04.199 For free, teledoc therapy is available through most insurance or employers. 0:10:04.960 --> 0:10:08.480 Download the app or visit telldoc dot com. Forward slash 0:10:08.600 --> 0:10:12.640 Unexplained podcast to day to get started. That's t e 0:10:12.960 --> 0:10:21.720 l a d oc dot com slash Unexplained podcast. And 0:10:21.840 --> 0:10:24.559 when Fred got the chance to clock up more flight time, 0:10:25.120 --> 0:10:29.080 Ronda was only too happy to accompany him. She loved 0:10:29.080 --> 0:10:32.240 the sensation of it, especially when the plane would break 0:10:32.240 --> 0:10:36.120 through into brilliant sunshine the clouds stretching out below like 0:10:36.200 --> 0:10:39.200 a soft blanket, almost as if you could step out 0:10:39.480 --> 0:10:43.920 and walk across it and up there alone with Fred. 0:10:44.280 --> 0:10:47.240 She'd never felt safer, even when he would loop the 0:10:47.280 --> 0:10:51.520 loop on one of his acrobatic flights. As Ronda got 0:10:51.520 --> 0:10:54.240 to know Fred a little better, there was one thing 0:10:54.360 --> 0:10:58.400 that stood out more than anything. It was his meticulous nature, 0:10:59.360 --> 0:11:02.080 whether it be making sure his car was running smoothly, 0:11:02.640 --> 0:11:05.960 the pride he took in how he dressed, almost markedly 0:11:06.360 --> 0:11:10.080 in his approach to his flight training. By mid May, 0:11:10.440 --> 0:11:13.320 Fred had clocked over one hundred and forty hours and 0:11:13.400 --> 0:11:16.480 had graduated to a Class four license, allowing him to 0:11:16.520 --> 0:11:20.720 fly at night. By way of celebration, Fred took Ronda 0:11:20.800 --> 0:11:23.520 on a six hundred mile flight to Spear's Point in 0:11:23.559 --> 0:11:28.319 Newcastle to visit her favorite uncle, Michael. It had been 0:11:28.360 --> 0:11:31.160 the perfect day, but the following morning, as the pair 0:11:31.240 --> 0:11:36.040 prepared to fly home, Fred seemed concerned. He was convinced 0:11:36.160 --> 0:11:39.600 that someone had tampered with the plane. After a short 0:11:39.640 --> 0:11:42.160 time in the air, the column on the joystick seemed 0:11:42.200 --> 0:11:46.240 to be loosening. Never wont to leave anything to chance, 0:11:46.600 --> 0:11:51.679 Fred made an emergency descent towards Bankstown airport in Sydney. 0:11:51.840 --> 0:11:55.680 Moments later, much to his shock, a military helicopter appeared 0:11:55.720 --> 0:11:59.560 from nowhere and ordered them out of the sky. In 0:11:59.640 --> 0:12:03.120 his eagerness to get the plane down, Fred had strayed 0:12:03.160 --> 0:12:08.160 marginally into a restricted airspace. Minutes later, Fred and Ronda 0:12:08.240 --> 0:12:11.640 touched down in Bankstown, but the incident would inevitably go 0:12:11.760 --> 0:12:16.240 down as a blemish on Fred's record. His abject disappointment 0:12:16.280 --> 0:12:19.720 in himself was a reminder to Ronda just how seriously 0:12:19.800 --> 0:12:28.160 he took his training. A few months later, on September seventeenth, 0:12:28.240 --> 0:12:31.440 just over four hundred miles south of Melbourne, across the 0:12:31.480 --> 0:12:35.360 Bass Strait to the far side of Tasmania, a lighthouse 0:12:35.440 --> 0:12:39.920 keeper spotted something strange in the sky. The keeper worked 0:12:39.960 --> 0:12:43.640 at the Matsika Island Lighthouse, located off the southern coast 0:12:43.679 --> 0:12:47.800 of mainland Tasmania. He had just completed his evening rounds 0:12:48.040 --> 0:12:51.840 when he noticed an unfamiliar light in the sky. It 0:12:51.920 --> 0:12:55.520 was extremely bright and appeared to be half moon in shape. 0:12:56.960 --> 0:12:59.480 Moments after he spotted it, all the power in the 0:12:59.600 --> 0:13:06.439 lighthouse inexplicably cut out. Bizarrely. After rushing to fix the problem, 0:13:06.640 --> 0:13:10.320 the keeper found no blown fuses or tripped circuit breakers. 0:13:11.360 --> 0:13:14.920 Five minutes later, the generator kicked into action and the 0:13:15.000 --> 0:13:19.800 power was restored. The keeper returned to his previous lookout 0:13:19.800 --> 0:13:22.680 point to find the strange light still hanging in the 0:13:22.800 --> 0:13:27.240 night sky. A closer look with binoculars revealed what appeared 0:13:27.240 --> 0:13:29.400 to be a small red dot in the middle of 0:13:29.440 --> 0:13:32.440 the light, which seemed to move to the side as 0:13:32.440 --> 0:13:37.520 if the light was turning. Ten minutes later, the power 0:13:37.559 --> 0:13:41.320 cut out again and remained out for fifteen minutes before 0:13:41.320 --> 0:13:45.120 it was finally restored, but again with no obvious cause. 0:13:46.679 --> 0:13:50.440 Moments later, the lighthouse keeper watched as the strange light 0:13:50.520 --> 0:13:54.000 eventually began to shrink, as if moving away from the island, 0:13:54.440 --> 0:14:03.720 until it had completely disappeared. Back in Melbourne a few 0:14:03.720 --> 0:14:08.040 weeks later, on Friday thirteenth of October, Fred and Ronda 0:14:08.200 --> 0:14:10.960 drove to their favorite spot up in the Dandenong Ranges. 0:14:12.200 --> 0:14:15.520 That night, they talked for hours as down below the 0:14:15.600 --> 0:14:19.440 Yarra Valley stretched out before them, blanketed by the warm, 0:14:19.520 --> 0:14:24.320 luminescent glow of a setting spring sun. Fred had never 0:14:24.360 --> 0:14:28.360 been more happy. Having just turned twenty, he was passing 0:14:28.360 --> 0:14:30.960 his exams and was well on the way to becoming 0:14:30.960 --> 0:14:37.160 a commercial airline pilot, and of course he also had Ronda. 0:14:37.240 --> 0:14:39.840 At some point, Fred pulled a box from his pocket 0:14:40.080 --> 0:14:43.280 and opened it to reveal a ring. Will you marry me? 0:14:43.480 --> 0:14:47.600 He asked. They'd known each other little over six months, 0:14:47.880 --> 0:14:51.280 but everything about this felt right. They laughed at the 0:14:51.320 --> 0:14:55.479 madness of it all. Ronda could barely hide her excitement 0:14:55.600 --> 0:14:58.800 as Fred slipped the friendship band onto her wedding ring finger. 0:15:00.000 --> 0:15:03.960 But then for a second she paused. Not only was 0:15:03.960 --> 0:15:07.000 it Friday the thirteenth, but wasn't it bad luck to 0:15:07.080 --> 0:15:10.120 place a friendship ring on the wedding ring finger? She thought, 0:15:11.240 --> 0:15:14.920 But Fred didn't believe in such things. Besides, she would 0:15:14.920 --> 0:15:18.680 have the real thing soon enough. In the meantime, he 0:15:18.760 --> 0:15:21.320 asked that she keep it all a secret until Rohnda's 0:15:21.360 --> 0:15:27.000 seventeenth birthday in December. Ronda didn't see Fred for the 0:15:27.040 --> 0:15:30.280 rest of the week, preoccupied as he was, with preparations 0:15:30.320 --> 0:15:35.320 for his latest milestone, a flight across open water. But 0:15:35.520 --> 0:15:38.200 on the Friday, Fred drove to Ronda's house and the 0:15:38.240 --> 0:15:40.960 pair made arrangements to meet for the flight the next day. 0:15:42.040 --> 0:15:44.200 Ronda agreed that she would meet him at the airport 0:15:44.280 --> 0:15:47.560 if she could get off work in time. Before he 0:15:47.680 --> 0:15:51.440 left that night, they kissed on the doorstep, a kiss 0:15:51.600 --> 0:15:56.600 that seemed to last a lifetime. Next morning, on Saturday, 0:15:56.640 --> 0:15:59.800 October the twenty first, Fred was up at six am, 0:16:00.080 --> 0:16:02.880 buzzing with excitement as he went over the flight plans 0:16:02.880 --> 0:16:06.240 in his head. After completing a shift at the AUSSI 0:16:06.320 --> 0:16:09.600 Disposal store at one three nine Puckle Street where he worked, 0:16:10.240 --> 0:16:13.800 Fred was soon on the freeway, racing towards Murrabin Airport 0:16:14.040 --> 0:16:18.280 in southeast Melbourne. Fred had a three hour lesson to 0:16:18.320 --> 0:16:21.320 negotiate before he could take his flight, but as was 0:16:21.360 --> 0:16:24.280 often his way, he arrived early, so he did what 0:16:24.360 --> 0:16:27.680 he always did in such circumstances. He took out his 0:16:27.760 --> 0:16:31.440 textbooks and revised until one thirty when the class began. 0:16:33.440 --> 0:16:36.600 Back in West Preston, Ronda was eagerly awaiting the end 0:16:36.600 --> 0:16:39.760 of her shift. She'd arranged with her parents to drive 0:16:39.800 --> 0:16:42.600 her down to the airport after her shift, but was 0:16:42.640 --> 0:16:46.480 being held up by a delayed co worker. Ronda had 0:16:46.480 --> 0:16:50.080 no choice but to cover until she arrived, but as 0:16:50.120 --> 0:16:54.520 the minutes ticked by, Ronda lost her ride. She would 0:16:54.520 --> 0:16:57.080 miss this flight, but Fred would be home before long, 0:16:57.440 --> 0:17:00.400 and after all she had the evening's dance to look 0:17:00.440 --> 0:17:05.480 forward to. Down at Murrabin Airport, Fred was disappointed not 0:17:05.560 --> 0:17:08.240 to find Ronda waiting for him by his car After 0:17:08.280 --> 0:17:11.679 the lesson in truth, the thought of flying over the 0:17:11.680 --> 0:17:15.200 water alone made him a little nervous, but a quick 0:17:15.320 --> 0:17:18.679 meteorological briefing revealed that the weather would be on his side, 0:17:19.080 --> 0:17:21.680 and with sunset not due for another two hours, he 0:17:21.720 --> 0:17:24.000 would have more than enough time to complete the journey 0:17:24.080 --> 0:17:28.560 before it got dark. At seventeen twenty three hours, Fred 0:17:28.600 --> 0:17:31.760 lodged his flight plan at the briefing office. He would 0:17:31.760 --> 0:17:35.520 fly southwest along the coast to Cape Otway before heading 0:17:35.560 --> 0:17:38.320 south over the Bass Strait to King Island at the 0:17:38.359 --> 0:17:42.160 north of Tasmania, before returning back to mu Rabin Airport. 0:17:43.720 --> 0:17:46.199 There was still no sign of Ronda, but Fred decided 0:17:46.240 --> 0:17:48.440 to give her a few more minutes and headed off 0:17:48.440 --> 0:17:51.240 to grab some food. In the meantime. There was a 0:17:51.280 --> 0:17:53.320 new place that had just opened near by that he 0:17:53.440 --> 0:17:56.040 liked to go, and so it was a short time 0:17:56.119 --> 0:17:59.520 later the Fred was sat in his car eating McDonald's, 0:18:00.040 --> 0:18:02.960 gazing out wistfully at the sea he was soon to cross. 0:18:04.760 --> 0:18:07.240 When he finally made it back to the airport. With 0:18:07.320 --> 0:18:10.479 time running out and Ronda yet to arrive, Fred had 0:18:10.520 --> 0:18:14.200 little choice but to set off alone. After a further 0:18:14.320 --> 0:18:17.560 round of checks, he jumped into the Cessna v D 0:18:17.840 --> 0:18:20.359 s J taxied the small plane to the edge of 0:18:20.359 --> 0:18:23.960 the runway before taking off into the early evening sky. 0:18:29.359 --> 0:18:32.600 Back in West Preston, Ronda had returned home and was 0:18:32.640 --> 0:18:35.640 getting herself ready for a night out with Fred, excited 0:18:35.680 --> 0:18:38.760 to hear all about his trip to king Ireland, but 0:18:38.880 --> 0:18:41.520 by the time it had got to eight pm, Ronda 0:18:41.600 --> 0:18:44.600 was growing concerned that there had been no word from Fred. 0:18:46.040 --> 0:18:49.560 Ronda never made it to the dance, but instead spent 0:18:49.600 --> 0:18:52.760 the night sat all made up on her bed, staring 0:18:52.760 --> 0:18:55.920 out her window at the street below for any sign 0:18:55.920 --> 0:19:00.760 of her fiance. At some point she must have fallen asleep, 0:19:01.119 --> 0:19:03.399 as she found herself being woken by the sound of 0:19:03.440 --> 0:19:08.119 the ABC news drifting in from her father's bedroom. She 0:19:08.200 --> 0:19:10.719 couldn't quite make out all of it, only that an 0:19:10.800 --> 0:19:15.120 unnamed pilot had gone missing over the bas Strait. Ronda's 0:19:15.160 --> 0:19:19.480 heart sunk deep into her chest. After taking an age 0:19:19.480 --> 0:19:23.000 to get through to Murrabin Airport. When they eventually picked up, 0:19:23.480 --> 0:19:28.679 Ronda received the devastating news the missing pilot was Fred. 0:19:31.359 --> 0:19:34.320 Over the next few days, wave after wave of search 0:19:34.359 --> 0:19:37.560 and rescue teams were dispatched unsuccessfully in the hunt for 0:19:37.600 --> 0:19:42.240 Fred's missing plane. For Ronda and Fred's family, their grief 0:19:42.400 --> 0:19:47.800 would have been unimaginable for the authorities, who were plainly 0:19:47.840 --> 0:19:51.760 only two likelihoods. One that Fred had got into some 0:19:51.840 --> 0:19:56.320 kind of difficulty, perhaps becoming disorientated over the water, leading 0:19:56.320 --> 0:20:01.679 to a catastrophic pilot error, or he had deliberately flown 0:20:01.680 --> 0:20:07.200 his plane into the sea. Since Fred had been taking 0:20:07.200 --> 0:20:10.720 a routine path over a manageable stretch of water, as 0:20:10.760 --> 0:20:14.160 noted in the cause analysis report, it is most probable 0:20:14.280 --> 0:20:17.320 that the wreckage would have been sighted, but the plane 0:20:17.600 --> 0:20:23.080 had disappeared without a trace. And then something extraordinary came 0:20:23.119 --> 0:20:28.880 to light. On Wednesday, the twenty fifth of October, Fred's father, Guido, 0:20:29.240 --> 0:20:31.880 was invited to listen to the final recording of Fred's 0:20:31.880 --> 0:20:36.960 air traffic control communication to formally identify the pilot. As 0:20:36.960 --> 0:20:40.399 soon as the recording crackled to life, Guido's heart broke 0:20:40.440 --> 0:20:43.080 for the thousandth time as the voice of his son 0:20:43.480 --> 0:20:46.720 came out at the speaker. But what everybody in the 0:20:46.800 --> 0:20:57.680 room heard next chilled them all to the bone. At 0:20:57.760 --> 0:21:02.840 nineteen hundred hours, Fred reported arriving successfully over Cape Otway 0:21:02.920 --> 0:21:08.080 before heading south over the open water. The next communication 0:21:08.600 --> 0:21:13.119 was received at nineteen hundred and six hours, Melbourne. This 0:21:13.280 --> 0:21:16.639 is Delta Sierra Juliet. Is there any known traffic below 0:21:16.680 --> 0:21:23.480 five thousand? Delta Sierra Juliet No known traffic. It seems 0:21:23.480 --> 0:21:27.280 to be a large aircraft below five thousand. What type 0:21:27.320 --> 0:21:31.160 of aircraft is it? I cannot affirm. It has four 0:21:31.200 --> 0:21:35.480 bright it seems to me like landing lights. Melbourne, this 0:21:35.600 --> 0:21:38.880 is Delta Sierra Juliet. The aircraft has just passed over 0:21:38.960 --> 0:21:42.760 me at least a thousand feet above Roger and it 0:21:42.880 --> 0:21:46.920 is a large aircraft. Confirm unknown due to the speed 0:21:46.960 --> 0:21:49.560 it's traveling. Is there any air Force aircraft in the 0:21:49.640 --> 0:21:57.000 vicinity Delta Sierra Juliet. No known aircraft in the vicinity, Melbourne. 0:21:57.000 --> 0:22:00.399 It's approaching now from due east towards me. Seems to 0:22:00.400 --> 0:22:03.000 me that he's playing some sort of game. He's flying 0:22:03.040 --> 0:22:05.639 over me two three times at a time at speeds 0:22:05.640 --> 0:22:10.080 I could not identify Delta Sierra Juliet. And confirm you 0:22:10.119 --> 0:22:15.760 cannot identify the aircraft affirmative. It's not an aircraft. It's 0:22:15.760 --> 0:22:19.359 a long shape. I cannot identify more than that. It 0:22:19.480 --> 0:22:23.320 has such speed. What I'm doing right now is orbiting, 0:22:23.320 --> 0:22:25.119 and the thing is just orbiting on top of me. 0:22:25.920 --> 0:22:28.879 It's got a green light and a sort of metallic 0:22:29.520 --> 0:22:33.080 like it's all shiny on the outside. It's just vanished. 0:22:34.560 --> 0:22:39.640 Delta Sierra Juliet confirmed that the aircraft has vanished. Ah, 0:22:39.680 --> 0:22:44.159 it's now approaching from the southwest. Roger, what are your intentions? 0:22:45.520 --> 0:22:49.720 My intentions are to go to King Island, Melbourne. That 0:22:49.880 --> 0:22:52.920 strange aircraft is hovering on top of me. Again, it's 0:22:52.960 --> 0:22:57.000 hovering and it's not an aircraft, and then there is nothing. 0:22:58.160 --> 0:23:02.400 Melbourne attempts communication again, but after seventeen seconds of dead 0:23:02.440 --> 0:23:07.439 air at nineteen hundred and twelve hours, Fred's radio falls silent. 0:23:17.119 --> 0:23:21.240 Within days, Fred's gripping final transmission made its way to 0:23:21.280 --> 0:23:26.160 the press. Before long, the papers were awash with speculation 0:23:26.359 --> 0:23:31.879 concerning Fred's fatal encounter with the UFO, and then something 0:23:31.960 --> 0:23:38.040 else emerged. Six weeks previously, Sergeant Jack Woodward of Curry 0:23:38.080 --> 0:23:41.919 Police on King Island had received a call concerning strange 0:23:42.000 --> 0:23:44.520 lights that had appeared off the north of the Island. 0:23:45.920 --> 0:23:49.200 A nurse at King Island Hospital had seen them too, 0:23:49.840 --> 0:23:52.720 with two other witnesses going as far as to write 0:23:52.720 --> 0:23:56.399 into the King Island News on September the twentieth. We 0:23:56.480 --> 0:23:59.119 are writing to your paper, they said, to see if 0:23:59.119 --> 0:24:02.840 anyone other than ourselves had seen any sightings of strange 0:24:02.880 --> 0:24:08.439 moving lights in the sky. The department at Transport were 0:24:08.520 --> 0:24:11.679 quick to quash the rumors, with one spokesman suggesting that 0:24:11.720 --> 0:24:14.439 if Fred's plane had inverted, he would have seen the 0:24:14.520 --> 0:24:18.240 light from Cape Otway and King Island houses reflected on 0:24:18.280 --> 0:24:21.639 cloud cover above him. But not only were there no 0:24:21.720 --> 0:24:24.680 clouds in the sky that night, as the spokesman was 0:24:24.720 --> 0:24:28.560 forced to admit, the conditions were near perfect and would 0:24:28.600 --> 0:24:34.959 have afforded Fred almost unlimited vision. Reports from Fred's friends 0:24:34.960 --> 0:24:40.080 and acquaintances began to emerge. They revealed a sober, studious 0:24:40.119 --> 0:24:43.840 and diligent flight student with the steely determination to succeed, 0:24:44.720 --> 0:24:47.800 with one friend noting that Fred was never prone to panic, 0:24:48.400 --> 0:24:51.240 as Ronda had also attested during her many hours of 0:24:51.280 --> 0:24:56.040 flying with him. Fred's instructors, Warren Dunlop and Martin Dalton 0:24:56.440 --> 0:25:00.399 described him as sincere and sensible, a little quiet, first, 0:25:00.560 --> 0:25:08.240 but quick to open up once you got to know him. 0:25:08.520 --> 0:25:13.239 For Alberta and Guido, the evidence spoke for itself, and 0:25:13.320 --> 0:25:15.760 with the papers more than happy to exploit their grief 0:25:15.960 --> 0:25:19.600 for the cosmic speculation, there was little room for anything else. 0:25:21.320 --> 0:25:24.520 As for sixteen year old Ronda, she had barely had 0:25:24.520 --> 0:25:27.840 time to grieve, such was the incessant hounding of the press. 0:25:29.160 --> 0:25:31.800 At one point she even fled to a motel in 0:25:31.880 --> 0:25:35.159 Cape Otway, only to find a crowd of journalists waiting 0:25:35.160 --> 0:25:39.000 for her in the foyer. And the truth was there 0:25:39.000 --> 0:25:43.240 really was nothing more that she could tell them. After 0:25:43.320 --> 0:25:47.840 two weeks, the search for Fred was called off. However, 0:25:48.280 --> 0:25:50.919 although they may not have found the wreckage, in the 0:25:51.000 --> 0:25:54.840 subsequent widening of the investigation, something new was about to 0:25:54.880 --> 0:25:58.240 come to light. It seemed that Fred had not been 0:25:58.359 --> 0:26:04.000 entirely honest with his parents or Ronder. On November first, 0:26:04.320 --> 0:26:08.520 the investigative team received a letter from Captain Edwin Robert Barnes, 0:26:08.920 --> 0:26:13.639 a former tutor of Fred's in nineteen seventy six. Fred 0:26:13.680 --> 0:26:16.280 had failed in his attempt to join the Royal Australian 0:26:16.280 --> 0:26:20.480 Air Force. It was not entirely unexpected, since not only 0:26:20.520 --> 0:26:23.800 had Fred left school, at sixteen, but his academic record 0:26:23.920 --> 0:26:27.679 had been poor. But Fred would not be deterred, and 0:26:27.760 --> 0:26:30.600 he resolved that whatever he lacked in intellect, he would 0:26:30.600 --> 0:26:35.159 work ferociously hard to make up for in effort. Although 0:26:35.160 --> 0:26:37.919 he would never realize his dream of making the Air Force, 0:26:38.320 --> 0:26:42.640 he could still make it as a commercial airline pilot. Sadly, 0:26:42.920 --> 0:26:46.560 this ambition, too, hit a snag when in nineteen seventy seven, 0:26:47.000 --> 0:26:50.119 Fred sat for and failed all five of his commercial 0:26:50.200 --> 0:26:54.320 pilot's license theory exams. It was at this point that 0:26:54.400 --> 0:26:59.080 an instructor, impressed by Fred's determination, recommended that Captain Barnes 0:26:59.400 --> 0:27:04.800 helped tutor him through his resets. In Barnes's letter, he 0:27:04.880 --> 0:27:08.520 speaks with great warmth and affection about the boy who, 0:27:08.560 --> 0:27:11.760 having not made it to the Air Force, nonetheless attended 0:27:11.760 --> 0:27:16.520 Squadron Headquarters in a civilian capacity, working without pay or allowances, 0:27:17.000 --> 0:27:22.320 until accepted into Squadron staff as an airman, a boy who, 0:27:22.359 --> 0:27:26.200 despite failing his exams, was a battler with the determination 0:27:26.359 --> 0:27:29.960 and stability to achieve his goal of becoming a commercial 0:27:29.960 --> 0:27:35.800 airline pilot. Fred eventually resat his exams in July of 0:27:35.880 --> 0:27:39.880