Speaker 1: At one pm Eastern Time on Wednesday, February the twenty second,
Speaker 1: two thousand and seventeen, NASA held a live press conference
Speaker 1: to make an exciting announcement. They had discovered a peculiar
Speaker 1: solar system located roughly forty light years from Earth. At
Speaker 1: the heart of the system was an ultra cool dwarf star.
Speaker 1: It was first spotted in two thousand and sixteen by
Speaker 1: astronomers using the Trappist telescope in Chile, and so it
Speaker 1: was named Trappist one. The star appeared to be orbited
Speaker 1: by two Earth sized planets. In the months that followed,
Speaker 1: a team of astronomers led by Michael Gillon from the
Speaker 1: University of Liege, working with NASA's Spitzer telescope, made a
Speaker 1: further incredible discovery. What they found was described by bits
Speaker 1: A Center manager Shawn Carey as the most exciting discovery
Speaker 1: in the history of the department. What Chillon's team uncovered
Speaker 1: was not two Earth sized planets, but seven. Furthermore, three
Speaker 1: of the planets were found to be occupying the crucial
Speaker 1: Goldilocks zone, an area of orbit necessary for the potential
Speaker 1: for water to a pool on a planet's surface. Such
Speaker 1: a discovery is the first time ever that so many
Speaker 1: potentially habitable planets had been found surrounding one single star.
Speaker 1: Not only that, but the masses and radii of these
Speaker 1: specific planets mark them out as possibly the best ever
Speaker 1: to warrant further investigation for life, or at the very least,
Speaker 1: a habitable ecosystem that could one day be explored. In
Speaker 1: the words of nassa's Associate Administrator of the Science Mission Directorate,
Speaker 1: Thomas Sir Buchan, the discovery gives us a hint that
Speaker 1: finding a second Earth is not just a matter of if,
Speaker 1: but when. What we have in this story is a
Speaker 1: major step forward towards answering one of the questions that
Speaker 1: is at the heart of so many of our philosophies,
Speaker 1: and that is are we alone? You're listening to Unexplained,
Speaker 1: and I'm Richard McClane Smith. Also on the panel at
Speaker 1: nassa's February press conference was Sarah Seeger, professor of planetary
Speaker 1: Science and Physics at MIT and author of the Seeger equation.
Speaker 1: The equation is considered by some to be an improved
Speaker 1: rendering of the famous Drake equation. In nineteen sixty one,
Speaker 1: the astronomer and physicist doctor Frank Drake devised his equation
Speaker 1: to estimate the number of communicative extraterrestrial civilizations that are
Speaker 1: likely to exist in the Milky Way galaxy. Drake's equation
Speaker 1: takes into account a number of variables, such as the
Speaker 1: rate of star formation, the average number of planets that
Speaker 1: orbit stars, as well as to which fraction exactly such
Speaker 1: planets might actually host sophisticated life forms. Although the equation
Speaker 1: was intended partly as a point of discussion, many critics
Speaker 1: were quick to argue that any attempt to estimate such
Speaker 1: a number would involve too big a margin of error
Speaker 1: to be reliable. However, a recent paper published by astrobiologists
Speaker 1: Adam Frank of the University of Rochester and Woodruff Sullivan
Speaker 1: of the University of Washington offered an interesting new approach
Speaker 1: to the question. Rather than trying to estimate the possible
Speaker 1: number of other extraterrestrial civilizations in our galaxy, they instead
Speaker 1: asked what were the odds that the human rays might
Speaker 1: be the only one. Their answer equated to roughly a
Speaker 1: one in sixty billion chants. So, when you also consider
Speaker 1: that the Milky Way is thought to be only one
Speaker 1: of two trillion galaxies in the known observable universe. Not
Speaker 1: only is it unfathomably unlikely that other civilizations don't exist
Speaker 1: in the universe, but it is entirely plausible that some
Speaker 1: may already have flourished and died out millions of times
Speaker 1: over before our own. We might then wonder, much like
Speaker 1: the great physicist Rico Fermi, if it is so likely
Speaker 1: that other sophisticated life forms exist out there, why have
Speaker 1: we never seen them, to which many, of course would reply,
Speaker 1: but we have. The following story is considered by many
Speaker 1: ufologists to be amongst the best evidence of an alien
Speaker 1: visitation to our planet. What happened exactly in the skies
Speaker 1: just off the coast of Melbourne, Australia in nineteen seventy
Speaker 1: eight has never been fully accounted for. It is a
Speaker 1: mystery that remains to this day unexplained. It was love
Speaker 1: at first sight, and as is often the case, it
Speaker 1: was completely unplanned. It was some time in March nineteen
Speaker 1: seventy eight, and Ronda had only recently turned sixteen. That night,
Speaker 1: she was accompanying her neighbor's son Peter to his regular
Speaker 1: Friday social event at the Flight sixteen Air Cadet headquarters
Speaker 1: in Maryborough, Melbourne. Peter had only recently joined the Australian
Speaker 1: Air Training Corps and who was eager to share his
Speaker 1: exciting new world with Ronda. What he hadn't banked on
Speaker 1: was bumping into Fred. Peter had been showing Ronda round
Speaker 1: the company buildings when Fred stepped out of a nearby
Speaker 1: office and write into her path. He was dark haired,
Speaker 1: handsome and elegant in his steel blue uniform. He introduced
Speaker 1: himself to Ronda as Fred Valentiic, before turning back to Peter.
Speaker 1: As the pair talked, Peter shifted uncomfortably whenever Fred's eyes
Speaker 1: glanced away towards Ronda. The next week, Peter was overjoyed
Speaker 1: when Ronda agreed to join him at the Cadet's Saturday
Speaker 1: night dance. Sadly for Peter, however, who Ronda was really
Speaker 1: hoping to see that night was Fred. Sure Enough, immediately
Speaker 1: after she arrived, she spotted him holding court with some
Speaker 1: friends at the back of the room. Unbeknownst to Ronda,
Speaker 1: Fred too had been hoping or evening that the two
Speaker 1: of them might meet again. There was only one problem, Peter,
Speaker 1: but Fred had a plan. It was well known that
Speaker 1: Peter's ill mother had given him a pager in case
Speaker 1: she might ever need him at short notice some point
Speaker 1: in the night. After waiting for just the right moment,
Speaker 1: Fred slipped away from his table to use the payphone outside.
Speaker 1: Moments later, he watched from the side of the hall
Speaker 1: as Peter received the message with a look of disappointment
Speaker 1: on his face. Of course, Fred knew it was a
Speaker 1: cruel trick, but this was love, and sometimes that's all
Speaker 1: that matters. Peter gestured his apologies to Ronda and made
Speaker 1: his way out of the club. As Fred returned to
Speaker 1: the end of Ronda's table, he was almost certain he
Speaker 1: could see a look of relief across her face. It
Speaker 1: hadn't gone unnoticed by Ronda that as the evening progressed,
Speaker 1: Fred seemed to be making his way further and further
Speaker 1: up the table, until finally he was sitting next to her,
Speaker 1: and so they would remain for the rest of the
Speaker 1: night as the hours drifted by timelessly. The following monday,
Speaker 1: Fred met Ronda's parents, and by the end of the
Speaker 1: week the pair had agreed to make it official. A
Speaker 1: few weeks later, Ronda was introduced to Fred's family at
Speaker 1: his home in Avondale Heights, where she met and fell
Speaker 1: in love with his parents, Alberta and Guido, his twelve
Speaker 1: year old brother Ricky, and his two twin sisters, Olivia
Speaker 1: and Laura. It was easy to see why Ronda was
Speaker 1: so smitten by Fred. He was fun and easy to
Speaker 1: be around, kind and well mannered, not to mention dashing
Speaker 1: in his training Corps uniform. But there was one thing
Speaker 1: that would have to be accommodated. It was Fred's dream
Speaker 1: to be a commercial airline pilot, and he dedicated himself
Speaker 1: to the task obsessively. Every spare minute was spent at
Speaker 1: his flight school or with his nose buried inside one
Speaker 1: of his training textbooks. Meeting up on weeknights was completely
Speaker 1: out of the question, but come the weekend they were
Speaker 1: like any other teenage couple. Fred wasn't a big drinker,
Speaker 1: but he loved going out with Ronda, perhaps his favorite
Speaker 1: moments being the ones they spent on Mount Dandenong, where
Speaker 1: they would just sit and take in the view as
Speaker 1: the evening sun gave way to the Melbourne city lights.
Speaker 1: Are you always taking care of your family? Do you
Speaker 1: often take care of others and not yourself. Now, it's
Speaker 1: time to take care of yourself, to make time for you.
Speaker 1: You deserve it. Teledoc gives you access to a licensed
Speaker 1: therapist to help you get back to feeling your best,
Speaker 1: to feeling like yourself again. With teledoc, you can speak
Speaker 1: to a licensed therapist by phone or video. Therapy appointments
Speaker 1: are available seven days a week from seven am to
Speaker 1: nine pm local time. If you feel overwhelmed sometimes maybe
Speaker 1: you feel stressed or anxious, depressed or lonely, or you
Speaker 1: might be struggling with a personal or family issue, teledoc
Speaker 1: can help. Teledoc is committed to facilitating great therapeutic matches,
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Speaker 1: For free, teledoc therapy is available through most insurance or employers.
Speaker 1: Download the app or visit telldoc dot com. Forward slash
Speaker 1: Unexplained podcast to day to get started. That's t e
Speaker 1: l a d oc dot com slash Unexplained podcast. And
Speaker 1: when Fred got the chance to clock up more flight time,
Speaker 1: Ronda was only too happy to accompany him. She loved
Speaker 1: the sensation of it, especially when the plane would break
Speaker 1: through into brilliant sunshine the clouds stretching out below like
Speaker 1: a soft blanket, almost as if you could step out
Speaker 1: and walk across it and up there alone with Fred.
Speaker 1: She'd never felt safer, even when he would loop the
Speaker 1: loop on one of his acrobatic flights. As Ronda got
Speaker 1: to know Fred a little better, there was one thing
Speaker 1: that stood out more than anything. It was his meticulous nature,
Speaker 1: whether it be making sure his car was running smoothly,
Speaker 1: the pride he took in how he dressed, almost markedly
Speaker 1: in his approach to his flight training. By mid May,
Speaker 1: Fred had clocked over one hundred and forty hours and
Speaker 1: had graduated to a Class four license, allowing him to
Speaker 1: fly at night. By way of celebration, Fred took Ronda
Speaker 1: on a six hundred mile flight to Spear's Point in
Speaker 1: Newcastle to visit her favorite uncle, Michael. It had been
Speaker 1: the perfect day, but the following morning, as the pair
Speaker 1: prepared to fly home, Fred seemed concerned. He was convinced
Speaker 1: that someone had tampered with the plane. After a short
Speaker 1: time in the air, the column on the joystick seemed
Speaker 1: to be loosening. Never wont to leave anything to chance,
Speaker 1: Fred made an emergency descent towards Bankstown airport in Sydney.
Speaker 1: Moments later, much to his shock, a military helicopter appeared
Speaker 1: from nowhere and ordered them out of the sky. In
Speaker 1: his eagerness to get the plane down, Fred had strayed
Speaker 1: marginally into a restricted airspace. Minutes later, Fred and Ronda
Speaker 1: touched down in Bankstown, but the incident would inevitably go
Speaker 1: down as a blemish on Fred's record. His abject disappointment
Speaker 1: in himself was a reminder to Ronda just how seriously
Speaker 1: he took his training. A few months later, on September seventeenth,
Speaker 1: just over four hundred miles south of Melbourne, across the
Speaker 1: Bass Strait to the far side of Tasmania, a lighthouse
Speaker 1: keeper spotted something strange in the sky. The keeper worked
Speaker 1: at the Matsika Island Lighthouse, located off the southern coast
Speaker 1: of mainland Tasmania. He had just completed his evening rounds
Speaker 1: when he noticed an unfamiliar light in the sky. It
Speaker 1: was extremely bright and appeared to be half moon in shape.
Speaker 1: Moments after he spotted it, all the power in the
Speaker 1: lighthouse inexplicably cut out. Bizarrely. After rushing to fix the problem,
Speaker 1: the keeper found no blown fuses or tripped circuit breakers.
Speaker 1: Five minutes later, the generator kicked into action and the
Speaker 1: power was restored. The keeper returned to his previous lookout
Speaker 1: point to find the strange light still hanging in the
Speaker 1: night sky. A closer look with binoculars revealed what appeared
Speaker 1: to be a small red dot in the middle of
Speaker 1: the light, which seemed to move to the side as
Speaker 1: if the light was turning. Ten minutes later, the power
Speaker 1: cut out again and remained out for fifteen minutes before
Speaker 1: it was finally restored, but again with no obvious cause.
Speaker 1: Moments later, the lighthouse keeper watched as the strange light
Speaker 1: eventually began to shrink, as if moving away from the island,
Speaker 1: until it had completely disappeared. Back in Melbourne a few
Speaker 1: weeks later, on Friday thirteenth of October, Fred and Ronda
Speaker 1: drove to their favorite spot up in the Dandenong Ranges.
Speaker 1: That night, they talked for hours as down below the
Speaker 1: Yarra Valley stretched out before them, blanketed by the warm,
Speaker 1: luminescent glow of a setting spring sun. Fred had never
Speaker 1: been more happy. Having just turned twenty, he was passing
Speaker 1: his exams and was well on the way to becoming
Speaker 1: a commercial airline pilot, and of course he also had Ronda.
Speaker 1: At some point, Fred pulled a box from his pocket
Speaker 1: and opened it to reveal a ring. Will you marry me?
Speaker 1: He asked. They'd known each other little over six months,
Speaker 1: but everything about this felt right. They laughed at the
Speaker 1: madness of it all. Ronda could barely hide her excitement
Speaker 1: as Fred slipped the friendship band onto her wedding ring finger.
Speaker 1: But then for a second she paused. Not only was
Speaker 1: it Friday the thirteenth, but wasn't it bad luck to
Speaker 1: place a friendship ring on the wedding ring finger? She thought,
Speaker 1: But Fred didn't believe in such things. Besides, she would
Speaker 1: have the real thing soon enough. In the meantime, he
Speaker 1: asked that she keep it all a secret until Rohnda's
Speaker 1: seventeenth birthday in December. Ronda didn't see Fred for the
Speaker 1: rest of the week, preoccupied as he was, with preparations
Speaker 1: for his latest milestone, a flight across open water. But
Speaker 1: on the Friday, Fred drove to Ronda's house and the
Speaker 1: pair made arrangements to meet for the flight the next day.
Speaker 1: Ronda agreed that she would meet him at the airport
Speaker 1: if she could get off work in time. Before he
Speaker 1: left that night, they kissed on the doorstep, a kiss
Speaker 1: that seemed to last a lifetime. Next morning, on Saturday,
Speaker 1: October the twenty first, Fred was up at six am,
Speaker 1: buzzing with excitement as he went over the flight plans
Speaker 1: in his head. After completing a shift at the AUSSI
Speaker 1: Disposal store at one three nine Puckle Street where he worked,
Speaker 1: Fred was soon on the freeway, racing towards Murrabin Airport
Speaker 1: in southeast Melbourne. Fred had a three hour lesson to
Speaker 1: negotiate before he could take his flight, but as was
Speaker 1: often his way, he arrived early, so he did what
Speaker 1: he always did in such circumstances. He took out his
Speaker 1: textbooks and revised until one thirty when the class began.
Speaker 1: Back in West Preston, Ronda was eagerly awaiting the end
Speaker 1: of her shift. She'd arranged with her parents to drive
Speaker 1: her down to the airport after her shift, but was
Speaker 1: being held up by a delayed co worker. Ronda had
Speaker 1: no choice but to cover until she arrived, but as
Speaker 1: the minutes ticked by, Ronda lost her ride. She would
Speaker 1: miss this flight, but Fred would be home before long,
Speaker 1: and after all she had the evening's dance to look
Speaker 1: forward to. Down at Murrabin Airport, Fred was disappointed not
Speaker 1: to find Ronda waiting for him by his car After
Speaker 1: the lesson in truth, the thought of flying over the
Speaker 1: water alone made him a little nervous, but a quick
Speaker 1: meteorological briefing revealed that the weather would be on his side,
Speaker 1: and with sunset not due for another two hours, he
Speaker 1: would have more than enough time to complete the journey
Speaker 1: before it got dark. At seventeen twenty three hours, Fred
Speaker 1: lodged his flight plan at the briefing office. He would
Speaker 1: fly southwest along the coast to Cape Otway before heading
Speaker 1: south over the Bass Strait to King Island at the
Speaker 1: north of Tasmania, before returning back to mu Rabin Airport.
Speaker 1: There was still no sign of Ronda, but Fred decided
Speaker 1: to give her a few more minutes and headed off
Speaker 1: to grab some food. In the meantime. There was a
Speaker 1: new place that had just opened near by that he
Speaker 1: liked to go, and so it was a short time
Speaker 1: later the Fred was sat in his car eating McDonald's,
Speaker 1: gazing out wistfully at the sea he was soon to cross.
Speaker 1: When he finally made it back to the airport. With
Speaker 1: time running out and Ronda yet to arrive, Fred had
Speaker 1: little choice but to set off alone. After a further
Speaker 1: round of checks, he jumped into the Cessna v D
Speaker 1: s J taxied the small plane to the edge of
Speaker 1: the runway before taking off into the early evening sky.
Speaker 1: Back in West Preston, Ronda had returned home and was
Speaker 1: getting herself ready for a night out with Fred, excited
Speaker 1: to hear all about his trip to king Ireland, but
Speaker 1: by the time it had got to eight pm, Ronda
Speaker 1: was growing concerned that there had been no word from Fred.
Speaker 1: Ronda never made it to the dance, but instead spent
Speaker 1: the night sat all made up on her bed, staring
Speaker 1: out her window at the street below for any sign
Speaker 1: of her fiance. At some point she must have fallen asleep,
Speaker 1: as she found herself being woken by the sound of
Speaker 1: the ABC news drifting in from her father's bedroom. She
Speaker 1: couldn't quite make out all of it, only that an
Speaker 1: unnamed pilot had gone missing over the bas Strait. Ronda's
Speaker 1: heart sunk deep into her chest. After taking an age
Speaker 1: to get through to Murrabin Airport. When they eventually picked up,
Speaker 1: Ronda received the devastating news the missing pilot was Fred.
Speaker 1: Over the next few days, wave after wave of search
Speaker 1: and rescue teams were dispatched unsuccessfully in the hunt for
Speaker 1: Fred's missing plane. For Ronda and Fred's family, their grief
Speaker 1: would have been unimaginable for the authorities, who were plainly
Speaker 1: only two likelihoods. One that Fred had got into some
Speaker 1: kind of difficulty, perhaps becoming disorientated over the water, leading
Speaker 1: to a catastrophic pilot error, or he had deliberately flown
Speaker 1: his plane into the sea. Since Fred had been taking
Speaker 1: a routine path over a manageable stretch of water, as
Speaker 1: noted in the cause analysis report, it is most probable
Speaker 1: that the wreckage would have been sighted, but the plane
Speaker 1: had disappeared without a trace. And then something extraordinary came
Speaker 1: to light. On Wednesday, the twenty fifth of October, Fred's father, Guido,
Speaker 1: was invited to listen to the final recording of Fred's
Speaker 1: air traffic control communication to formally identify the pilot. As
Speaker 1: soon as the recording crackled to life, Guido's heart broke
Speaker 1: for the thousandth time as the voice of his son
Speaker 1: came out at the speaker. But what everybody in the
Speaker 1: room heard next chilled them all to the bone. At
Speaker 1: nineteen hundred hours, Fred reported arriving successfully over Cape Otway
Speaker 1: before heading south over the open water. The next communication
Speaker 1: was received at nineteen hundred and six hours, Melbourne. This
Speaker 1: is Delta Sierra Juliet. Is there any known traffic below
Speaker 1: five thousand? Delta Sierra Juliet No known traffic. It seems
Speaker 1: to be a large aircraft below five thousand. What type
Speaker 1: of aircraft is it? I cannot affirm. It has four
Speaker 1: bright it seems to me like landing lights. Melbourne, this
Speaker 1: is Delta Sierra Juliet. The aircraft has just passed over
Speaker 1: me at least a thousand feet above Roger and it
Speaker 1: is a large aircraft. Confirm unknown due to the speed
Speaker 1: it's traveling. Is there any air Force aircraft in the
Speaker 1: vicinity Delta Sierra Juliet. No known aircraft in the vicinity, Melbourne.
Speaker 1: It's approaching now from due east towards me. Seems to
Speaker 1: me that he's playing some sort of game. He's flying
Speaker 1: over me two three times at a time at speeds
Speaker 1: I could not identify Delta Sierra Juliet. And confirm you
Speaker 1: cannot identify the aircraft affirmative. It's not an aircraft. It's
Speaker 1: a long shape. I cannot identify more than that. It
Speaker 1: has such speed. What I'm doing right now is orbiting,
Speaker 1: and the thing is just orbiting on top of me.
Speaker 1: It's got a green light and a sort of metallic
Speaker 1: like it's all shiny on the outside. It's just vanished.
Speaker 1: Delta Sierra Juliet confirmed that the aircraft has vanished. Ah,
Speaker 1: it's now approaching from the southwest. Roger, what are your intentions?
Speaker 1: My intentions are to go to King Island, Melbourne. That
Speaker 1: strange aircraft is hovering on top of me. Again, it's
Speaker 1: hovering and it's not an aircraft, and then there is nothing.
Speaker 1: Melbourne attempts communication again, but after seventeen seconds of dead
Speaker 1: air at nineteen hundred and twelve hours, Fred's radio falls silent.
Speaker 1: Within days, Fred's gripping final transmission made its way to
Speaker 1: the press. Before long, the papers were awash with speculation
Speaker 1: concerning Fred's fatal encounter with the UFO, and then something
Speaker 1: else emerged. Six weeks previously, Sergeant Jack Woodward of Curry
Speaker 1: Police on King Island had received a call concerning strange
Speaker 1: lights that had appeared off the north of the Island.
Speaker 1: A nurse at King Island Hospital had seen them too,
Speaker 1: with two other witnesses going as far as to write
Speaker 1: into the King Island News on September the twentieth. We
Speaker 1: are writing to your paper, they said, to see if
Speaker 1: anyone other than ourselves had seen any sightings of strange
Speaker 1: moving lights in the sky. The department at Transport were
Speaker 1: quick to quash the rumors, with one spokesman suggesting that
Speaker 1: if Fred's plane had inverted, he would have seen the
Speaker 1: light from Cape Otway and King Island houses reflected on
Speaker 1: cloud cover above him. But not only were there no
Speaker 1: clouds in the sky that night, as the spokesman was
Speaker 1: forced to admit, the conditions were near perfect and would
Speaker 1: have afforded Fred almost unlimited vision. Reports from Fred's friends
Speaker 1: and acquaintances began to emerge. They revealed a sober, studious
Speaker 1: and diligent flight student with the steely determination to succeed,
Speaker 1: with one friend noting that Fred was never prone to panic,
Speaker 1: as Ronda had also attested during her many hours of
Speaker 1: flying with him. Fred's instructors, Warren Dunlop and Martin Dalton
Speaker 1: described him as sincere and sensible, a little quiet, first,
Speaker 1: but quick to open up once you got to know him.
Speaker 1: For Alberta and Guido, the evidence spoke for itself, and
Speaker 1: with the papers more than happy to exploit their grief
Speaker 1: for the cosmic speculation, there was little room for anything else.
Speaker 1: As for sixteen year old Ronda, she had barely had
Speaker 1: time to grieve, such was the incessant hounding of the press.
Speaker 1: At one point she even fled to a motel in
Speaker 1: Cape Otway, only to find a crowd of journalists waiting
Speaker 1: for her in the foyer. And the truth was there
Speaker 1: really was nothing more that she could tell them. After
Speaker 1: two weeks, the search for Fred was called off. However,
Speaker 1: although they may not have found the wreckage, in the
Speaker 1: subsequent widening of the investigation, something new was about to
Speaker 1: come to light. It seemed that Fred had not been
Speaker 1: entirely honest with his parents or Ronder. On November first,
Speaker 1: the investigative team received a letter from Captain Edwin Robert Barnes,
Speaker 1: a former tutor of Fred's in nineteen seventy six. Fred
Speaker 1: had failed in his attempt to join the Royal Australian
Speaker 1: Air Force. It was not entirely unexpected, since not only
Speaker 1: had Fred left school, at sixteen, but his academic record
Speaker 1: had been poor. But Fred would not be deterred, and
Speaker 1: he resolved that whatever he lacked in intellect, he would
Speaker 1: work ferociously hard to make up for in effort. Although
Speaker 1: he would never realize his dream of making the Air Force,
Speaker 1: he could still make it as a commercial airline pilot. Sadly,
Speaker 1: this ambition, too, hit a snag when in nineteen seventy seven,
Speaker 1: Fred sat for and failed all five of his commercial
Speaker 1: pilot's license theory exams. It was at this point that
Speaker 1: an instructor, impressed by Fred's determination, recommended that Captain Barnes
Speaker 1: helped tutor him through his resets. In Barnes's letter, he
Speaker 1: speaks with great warmth and affection about the boy who,
Speaker 1: having not made it to the Air Force, nonetheless attended
Speaker 1: Squadron Headquarters in a civilian capacity, working without pay or allowances,
Speaker 1: until accepted into Squadron staff as an airman, a boy who,
Speaker 1: despite failing his exams, was a battler with the determination
Speaker 1: and stability to achieve his goal of becoming a commercial
Speaker 1: airline pilot. Fred eventually resat his exams in July of
Speaker 1: nineteen seventy eight and Barnes was overjoyed when Fred called
Speaker 1: him up in mid September to tell him with great
Speaker 1: excitement that he had finally passed. Only it was a lie,
Speaker 1: a lie that Fred had been hiding from not only
Speaker 1: his beloved tutor, but also his family and Ronda. Suddenly
Speaker 1: some of the more confusing aspects of Fred's final days
Speaker 1: had taken on a different shape. Why he had proposed
Speaker 1: to Ronda on Friday the thirteenth, a week before the
Speaker 1: day they regularly celebrated as a monthly anniversary. Why if
Speaker 1: he was intending to land at King Ireland, he hadn't
Speaker 1: requested landing lights to be turned on. Or why he
Speaker 1: told Ronda that he'd be back to take her out,
Speaker 1: but told his father that he wouldn't return till at
Speaker 1: least ten pm. Is it possible that, rather than having
Speaker 1: been plucked from the sky by an unknown entity, Fred had,
Speaker 1: in a sense already been taken away some time ago
Speaker 1: by something else equally intangible. In the end, had this
Speaker 1: young man whose only dream was to prove to the
Speaker 1: world that he had what it took to be a
Speaker 1: pilot finally been broken by the crushing realization that, no
Speaker 1: matter how hard he tried, his head would never match
Speaker 1: up to his heart. A young man too pained to
Speaker 1: reveal the truth to his family and Ronda, to whom
Speaker 1: he felt he had promised so much. All elements of
Speaker 1: Unexplained are produced by me Richard McClain smith. Please subscribe
Speaker 1: and rate the show on iTunes, and feel free to
Speaker 1: get in touch with any thoughts or ideas regarding the
Speaker 1: stories you've heard on the show. Perhaps you have an
Speaker 1: explanation of your own you'd like to share. You can
Speaker 1: reach us online at Unexplained podcast dot com or on
Speaker 1: Twitter at Unexplained Pod. Now it's time to take care
Speaker 1: of yourself. To make time for you, Tell a doc
Speaker 1: gives you access to a licensed therapist to help you
Speaker 1: get back to feeling your best. Speak to a licensed
Speaker 1: therapist by phone or video anytime between seven am to
Speaker 1: nine pm local time, seven days a week. Teledoc Therapy
Speaker 1: is available through most insurance or employers. Download the app
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