This Paranormal Life - #325 UFO Abducts Pilot - The Disappearance of Frederick Valentich

Episode Date: July 25, 2023

How does a plane even go missing? That's what Frederick's friends, family, and colleagues all must have wondered when he never arrived at his destination one fateful day in 1978. Normally search parties would look at flight paths or hunt for wreckage, but this time they had a larger and more ominous clue - the last transmission Frederick made moments before he went missing, describing what can only be explained as some kind of UFO following him, before the communication was abruptly ended and he was never seen again. More clues would emerge in the coming days that Rory and Kit must now pore over and decide, was he truly abducted by aliens?LIVE TOUR - www.thisparanormallife.com/tourFollow us on Twitter, Instagram, and YouTubeJoin our Secret Society Facebook CommunitySupport us on Patreon.com/ThisParanormalLife to get access to weekly bonus episodes!Buy Official TPL Merch! - thisparanormallife.com/storeIntro music by www.purple-planet.comResearch by Amy GrisdaleEdited by Philip Shacklady Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Are memories mental ghosts that haunt our brains? What do alien feet look like? Asking for a friend. Answers to these questions and more on this episode of This Paranormal Life! Hello! Hey! And welcome back to This Paranormal Life.

This is the weekly comedy podcast where every Tuesday, me, Kit Greer-Molvena, the guy sitting across from me, Rory Pars, we get into a different paranormal case every Tuesday, me, Kit Greer-Molvena, the guy sitting across from me, Rory Pars, we get into a different paranormal case every Tuesday and decide by the end of the episode whether it's truly paranormal or not. Yeah. How the hell are you doing, Rory? I'm stressed. I've got a lot on.

We've been working like crazy and we're just about to dive into a paranormal story. And to be honest with you, I don't feel ready. I don't feel prepared mentally, physically. It's pretty understandable. I mean, the life of a paranormal investigator. I mean, you guys think that the stuff we show you every Tuesday is everything that's going on. What do you think is happening Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday? Yeah.

Kid's got a kid. I've got 13 of them. Well, yeah, we have childcare, obviously, and family duties. But I was talking about the actual other paranormal investigations we're getting into. Most of the shit you get up to as a paranormal investigator is far too dark, disturbing, and perverted, frankly. It's true. To show on a public, family-facing podcast. I also don't technically care for my children, so you couldn't call it childcare.

Right, yeah, me caring for my one child is more than Rory does for his 13. But what you're saying is we're someone who lives two different lives. You know, imagine if Neo in the first Matrix movie took the red pill and the blue pill at the same time. He both went to the world where robots can fly in the sky and also stayed in the world where he has to do emails every Monday. We live in both worlds. So yeah, we want to fight with Morpheus. We want to take down Agent Smith. We want to save the world.

But also, I've got the big meeting proposal on Monday morning at 8 a.m. And I have to be there, files in hand, to deliver that presentation. Rory, well, I'm afraid I don't know if today's episode is going to be much help. Because unfortunately, I'm going to be heaping another steaming pile of paranormal on your plate first thing here on Friday morning. All right, well, let me just, I can do it. Let me just get in the mood a little bit. Yeah, that's the kind of energy we need.

I'm going to drink this entire pint of iced coffee before we get going as well. Give me a second. That's not coffee. Don't drink that shit. That's white spirit. I've been painting. Stop. Stop.

Why? You can hear me. Why are you still drinking? Why are you still drinking? Because I want to die. Jesus Christ, man. I thought you were getting the energy to podcast, to perform. Stop drinking.

Stop drinking. You said, let me take a drink from this coffee real quick and then used a screwdriver to open a paint can. You must have known it wasn't coffee you grabbed a pritt stick and started huffing it to take the pain away we are getting dark here on this week's episode of this paranormal life but that's not where we're going because rory we have as always as every week a brand new paranormal investigation to get into something we're gonna do right after some quick words from today's sponsors.

All right, Rory, let's get into today's case. It's the 21st of October 1978 in Melbourne, Australia. Ooh, hey, we were just in Australia not that long ago, having breakfast served to us at 200 miles per hour. It was the egg. It was the egg. One which you reminded me during our Patreon after party. That's patreon.com forward slash this paranormal life.

You reminded me that that was actually a double yes, too. So we were in Australia, not only investigating the paranormal, but actually giving it a big certified stamp of approved. Yeah. Yeah. One that you kind of did quite bitterly big certified stamp of approved. Yeah, yeah. One that you kind of did quite bitterly at the end of the episode. Of course. But every double yes is a certified fresh from this paranormal life, meaning that that happened. Yeah. That shit's

real. It's canon. So the fact that we're going back to Australia for another paranormal case, we already know that there are paranormal events that have taken place here that are legit. It's been a big year for Australia coverage here on TPL, and Lord knows we haven't been going back because of our award-winning Australian accents. It's because the paranormal seems to be just kicking off over there. Whether it's Pine Gap, whether it's the egg,

or whether it's the subject of today's investigation. It was a little after six in the evening and 20-year-old pilot Frederick Valentich was sitting in the cockpit of his Cessna 182 light aircraft, awaiting approval for the flight plan he'd just filed at Moorabbin Airport. His tank was full of fuel, the weather report looked good, and he was ready to soar into the sky. Delta Sierra Juliet,

this is Melbourne. You have clearance to take off to King Island. Please taxi to runway B. Awesome! Thank you, Tower. I'm headed out to the island to pick up a shipment of shrimp and a bunch of my mates. We're gonna have a blast! Delta Sierra Juliet, please keep transmissions to essential information only. Sorry, I'm a bit of an mates. We're going to have a blast. Delta Sierra Julia, please keep transmissions

to essential information only. Sorry, I'm a bit of an oversharer. See, even that, for example, not necessary. I won't do it again, mate. Delta Sierra Julia, you're clear to take off. The thing is,

I think it's because I care so much about my trade. We have so many planes, I need to give clearance. You've got a 30-second window, mate. Please take it. Right, right. It's just my friends. Stop talking. Do you want a shrimp?

Because we're bringing back a whole crate of them. Oh, you missed your runway. You're going to have to wait for another two hours, mate. Do you know what? I can't listen to this for another two f***ing hours. You've got to go. Can you turn off your radio? I can hear it crackling.

Turn it off. You're sitting in silence. I can hear you. Is it crying noises going from the radio? Even crying is a noise. Turn it off. I just don't understand what you want from me, mate. Crying is not essential information.

He was a young pilot. He'd only qualified 13 months ago. And he was still trying to log his flight hours while he was studying for his commercial license. Right. He loved being in the air and dreamed of a life flying jets for a big airline. But the feeling of freedom didn't last. It wasn't long until he realized a large, unidentified object was looming above him. Whoa.

The sky was already dark, but whatever was flying overhead him had bright spotlights shining directly down. Oh my God. And from the sounds of it, this is someone who is, you know, if he's training to get his wings or and logging flight hours i'm assuming he's not going to be in an aircraft with any kind of weaponry right generally they don't trust you with that yeah when you're just getting used to things you know and an airplane is quite a difficult vehicle to roll down the window and take a couple shots with a handgun. It kind of, you roll that window down, you're going out. So I don't really know what you do in this situation. Yeah, I think at this point, Frederick maybe had a pen knife,

maybe in his pocket that if he could, sure, if he could get close enough to the thing, he might be able to lean out and slash its wings or something. I don't know. Like the drag race in an old 1950s movie. I mean, it's worth bringing up is I mentioned the type of aircraft he's in, a Cessna. Do you know what that is? A Cessna? No, I don't. I'm going to show you because it'll really help illustrate the kind of thing we're dealing with here. That's a Cessna. Oh, all right. Let me put

it in simple terms that our listeners might be able to understand if they're not familiar with the technical terms for airplanes. Indiana Jones Jungle Plane is what this is. Indy is slumped at the back of the plane, hat over his face so he can get some shut-eye, obviously.

And his glamorous female companion is, she's freaking out, obviously. She's scared of the plane, and he's going, get some shut-eye. Yeah. We're going to be there in a few hours. That kind of an energy.

Yeah, this thing is like a borderline prop plane. Very small. It is. It's a propeller. This one we're looking at has a propeller at the front, propeller at the back. Small, pretty cool-looking, old-fashioned airplane. He snatched the radio and contacted Melbourne Flight Service Unit, the FSU.

You know, sometimes in this paranormal life, we have to use our imagination in these kind of moments. And guess what might have been said? Use the audio medium of podcasting, sound effects, music, to communicate what might have happened that day. Thankfully, we don't need to do any of that shit because we've got the transcript, so I can tell you exactly what he said that day. Holy shit. And bear in mind, this is all absolutely real.

I mean, I might go off script a little bit. Well, don't, because it's very crucial to the story that it is, because it's actually a pretty nuts story, and when you hear what he's about to say, I think we do want to keep it to the script this time. To the script. Because, I mean, it's so rare we actually have the dialogue that was said on the night recorded. And granted, sometimes our stories are like, they do need a bit of embellishing to kind of make it interesting enough. But this time, I'm telling you, we don't.

This time, stick to the script, minimal improvisation, barely take any creative liberties. But if necessary, jazz it up a little, sex it up a little. No, I think just none. Maybe, you know, I think to appease you in this moment because I know what you're like and you get quite stubborn and you don't really take no for an answer. I can kind of see in your eyes you've stopped listening to me at this point. I'm already thinking about lines I can say. What I would say to try and fob you've stopped listening to me at this point. I'm already thinking about lines I can say. What I would say to try and fob you off

is let's do a straight read and then we'll see if it's missing anything and then we can kind of circle back and add in a bit of that Rory magic that we've all come to know and love.

Okay. How does that sound? Yeah, I like it. Circle back or do it as we go. Either one. It kind of works for me. No, I think... Action!

Add action! F***. Melvin, this is Delta Sierra Juliet. Is there any known traffic below 5,000 feet? Delta Sierra Juliet, no known traffic. There seems to be a large aircraft below 5,000. What type of aircraft is it? I cannot affirm.

It is full bright lights. It seems to be landing lights. Delta Sierra Juliet. The aircraft has just passed over me, at least a thousand feet above. Roger, and it is a large aircraft? Confirm. Unknown due to the speed it's travelling. Is there any Air Force craft in the vicinity? No known aircraft in the vicinity. It's approaching now from due east towards me. He's flying over me at three times at a time at speeds I could not identify.

Roger, what is your actual level? My level's four and a half thousand. Four five zero zero. And confirm you cannot identify the aircraft? Affirmative. Roger. Standby. Melbourne, it's not an aircraft. Delta Sierra Juliet, can you describe the aircraft?

It's flying past. It's a long shape. Cannot identify more than that. It has such speed. Before me right now, Melvin. Roger, and how large would the object be? It seems like it's stationary. What I'm doing right now is orbiting, and the thing is just orbiting on top of me.

Also, it's got a green light and sort of metallic. It's all shiny on the outside. It's just vanished. Melbourne. Melbourne, help. You're going off script. You're going off script. I can see you're sweating and you're getting into this,

but you are going off script. I literally forgot for a second I wasn't in the airplane. I just started like reaching in front of me for the ejector seat that doesn't exist in the podcast studio. Melvin, tell my wife and kids. Rory, you don't have a wife and kids. Oh, f*** Melvin.

I'm going to take this thing into the water below. I got to take what I've seen to the grave. It's just vanished, Melvin. Would you know what kind of aircraft I've got? Is it a military aircraft? Delta Sierra Juliet, confirm the uh, the aircraft just vanished Say again? Is the aircraft still with you?

It's uh... Now approaching from the south west The engine is rough idling I've got it set at 2324. The thing is coughing. Roger, what are your intentions? My intentions are to go to King Island. Ah, Melbourne! The strange aircraft is hovering on top of me again.

It is hovering. And it's not an aircraft. Delta Sierra Juliet. Melbourne! Delta Sierra Juliet, this is Melbourne. There is no record of any further transmissions from the aircraft. The only sound that came through after the final words were bizarre metallic scraping sounds that the operator at the tower couldn't identify. Oh!

Rederick's first and last communications took place at 6 minutes past 7 in the evening and 11 minutes past 7. This puts the duration of the entire event at just under 5 minutes. Wow, that was a lot to happen in 5 minutes. He never landed on King Island. In fact, he has never been seen again. Whoa! An intensive air, land, and sea search was carried out until October 25th, but no trace of the Cessna or its pilot were found. A large patch of oil was spotted by air, but it wasn't found to be connected to a wreckage. A month later, the pilot of another Cessna saw the outline of what he believed was a submerged aircraft,

Months later, the pilot of another Cessna saw the outline of what he believed was a submerged aircraft. But on another Passover, he couldn't find it again. Things aren't looking good for the rescue team if you don't even know what level of earth he's on. What do you mean? You know, usually if someone goes missing or there's an accident, we can at least be like, he's on the earth. We know he's somewhere on ground at the very least. Right. The fact that these guys are going to be like, you take the sky, I'll take underwater,

and someone takes the surface. That's so, like you're already adding two essentially dimensions where this person could have disappeared. Yeah, this is like trying to find a missing person in the kingdom of Hyrule. You take the water temple. I will take the fire temple.

It's going to take so long and it's so arduous and deadly to try and find anyone. I mean, we're not even considering the fact that this motherfucker might not even be on Earth anymore by the sounds of it. He's gone. Metal scraping was heard through the radio.

Them UFO took a fucking spatula to Frederick and scooped him off his plane like a cookie off a baking tray. Scooped him into outer space. After their search, the Bureau of Air Safety Investigation released its findings, May 1982. The reason for the disappearance of the aircraft has not been determined, but the outcome is presumed fatal. How could it not be determined? I mean, what we just read, for the most part, was the actual transcript from the audio logs. From that alone, I don't even know where we're going in this case, but from that alone, it feels like we got a pretty good explanation of what

happened. He wasn't being vague about what he was seeing. He actually described it in great detail. Right. Nobody knows what happened to Frederick or his plane. We do! And this is a decades old mystery. The disappearance. It isn't! No!

Let me do the badass. I know what you're trying to do. Subtitle with the big, I need the bass sound effect. We need the bass sound effect to reel in the listeners because they honestly might have been drifting off during that big dialogue, which was granted very historically accurate. But f*** it, maybe looking back, maybe we should have done a little bit of Rory magic sprinkled in there

because it might have been getting a little bit boring. That's why we need the bass drop sound effect to really bring everyone home. All right, let's do it. The Disappearance of Frederick Valentich. No, yeah, I mean, you can redo it if you want to put a bit more excitement to it. Sorry, let me say that again and you do the same thing. Disappearance of Frederick Valentich, whatever. All right, you don't have to kind of splurt it out.

We could do it again. Play the bass sound effect. Rory, have you heard of this tale before i haven't which is kind of crazy because i feel like this mysterious disappearances and ufo events are two of my favorite paranormal cases to investigate so it's it's a miracle that i haven't heard of this one before you know i did quite recently cover a similar case involving officer mantel i don't know if you remember that but he essentially very similar he was a i believe a u.s air force pilot who was a goddamn veteran he was a beast he was basically a maverick from top gun who had a very

similar experience like this he he encountered an unidentified flying object, had brief radio communication, and then the next thing they know, they found his plane in an exploded ball of fire. Yeah. And it was the first ever recorded instance of a US aircraft being taken down by an object that they don't know what it was.

So to see this happening again, we're seeing a pattern here. Absolutely. I don't remember when the Mantell UFO incident happened. Do you roughly remember? I'll tell you right now because I'll Google it. But I'm also aware it sounds like that we are, you know, covering a case now with a lot of similar themes.

Beefcake, military guys, all flying jets together. So if you remember in that episode i actually wrote a royalty free version of highway to the danger zone so we own that we own the copyright for it so if you do want to play that at any point i don't this episode just let me know because it was it was actually a pretty sexy song i'll let you know if hell freezes over how about that because when did this case take place this one was the late 70s i think this was earlier i believe the date for the mantel ufo incident was 1948 wow so it just goes to show how again you know we've recently covered a lot of kind of recent uap sightings ufo sightings and a lot similar to this of pilots being the first line of defense against the frankly alien onslaught the the covenant from halo arriving on earth they're the first people who see what happens

they are the first people who are going to get in trouble if they come into contact with these things but whilst that is happening at a crazy rate today, these things might have been happening some years ago, even as early as the 40s, even as early as the 70s. Yeah, it's true. It's really true. And like I said at the beginning, it's a good thing that we recently looked into Pine Gap, recently looked into The Egg, the 200 mile per hour all day breakfast, because we're, again, set in Australia. So if you do want to know more about the paranormal in Australia,

and we know we do have a great Australian listenership here of TPL, if you haven't heard those episodes, go back and check them out. We have a lot of episodes set in Australia, actually. Yeah. Mysterious place. So getting back to our story,

Frederick, gone without a trace. All his colleagues, friends, and family were left with were his memories and the transcript that we just read, indicating a strange beyond belief experience right before he disappeared. So at this point, they don't even know where he went. They have no goddamn idea. As the report stated, presumed dead.

I mean, that report came out, I think, a few years after this incident happened. That's crazy. Long after he'd already vanished, Frederick's father revealed that the previous year before he went missing, his son had spotted a UFO in the sky, moving away very fast. He told his father how worried he was that aliens might attack. But things got even stranger, because although Frederick was never seen again, I'm not actually certain the same can be said about his plane.

The morning after the disappearance, a farmer in Cape Otway, an area along the edge of Frederick's flight path, saw an unusual flying object hovering above his property. The object was approximately 30 meters across and it appeared to have a small airplane attached to its side. What? According to the farmer, the attached aircraft was leaking oil. He's so disturbed by what he saw he etched the aircraft's tail number onto one of his tractors so he wouldn't forget it. It was that close?

Must have been. The number matched Frederick Cessna. What? I will be honest, that is a lot to take in at this stage of the investigation. That is absolutely insane. He read the plates***ing plates? This guy is...

You've heard of 20-20 vision. This motherf***er had 50-70 vision. He's seeing like Legolas in Lord of the Rings. He can see two miles. Right. Yeah, investigate this dude. I don't think he's from this earth. Little dribs and drabs of information like this

started to come out. And that's what makes our job a little bit harder today on This Paranormal Life because some of these conflict with one another. Some witnesses said that they saw the plane in the sky the night it disappeared with a green light shining above it. Now, that's pretty cool because that indicates that Frederick wasn't imagining things. He really did see something above him. God knows what it was.

This is escalating very quickly. How many witnesses on the ground, independent witnesses, have seen this thing now? I think a handful. Okay. Another pair of witnesses came forward to say they'd seen a small plane matching Frederick's description landing in a quiet Melbourne suburb the day after he went missing. But conversely to that, on the 6th of July 1983, a year after he was presumed dead, a piece of an aircraft washed ashore on the west coast of Flinders Island. After analysis,

it was found to be from the same type of plane, at least. Right. But if it was his, why did it take five long years to wash up if it had been out there all that time? Bro, how does this happen? How does a plane go somewhere and no one knows where it went? Hey, we've seen it before many times, whether it's the Bermuda Triangle, the other triangles, the Bridgewater Triangle, any of these mysterious zones where planes go down inexplicably. I guess that's it. I guess if it crashed or exploded or was taken away somewhere, that's how they don't know where it went.

I don't see a world in which he landed somewhere and made an escape. There's no reason why. People know where planes land. That's like a big thing about planes and airports. It's like there's a guy who tells all the planes when to come in at what time. You can't just sneak in and be like, what? You can't cut the line and land on the runway. It would be an international event that would take place.

Yeah, there's only so long. I mean, Australia is a big place, granted, but there's only so long. If we add all these bits together, the fact that he went dark on the radio and then the plane was never seen again something happened now granted a farmer says that he was literally magnetically abducted by a ufo who knows maybe a ufo just took him down i mean we've seen in a recent episode the department of defense said that there had been something like 11 near misses in the last couple of years with UFOs and

army aircraft. So, these things do happen. They come close, they get too close for comfort, and they could cause accidents. Yeah. Rory, I think we're getting the picture that something about all of this isn't adding up. We need to figure out what's going on. Right after, a couple words

from today's sponsors and a quick reminder that every episode of This Paranormal Life, every single one is available ad free over on patreon.com forward slash this paranormal life. Rory, you're not the only one who heard about this story and started thinking pretty skeptically about what's going on, trying to figure out what's what's happened because This isn't a guy who wandered into the woods a guy with no passport or social security number who just got vaporized And didn't leave a trace this guy was talking to the guy on the radio for a long time He had a big expensive expensive airplane. Right. As you say, there's only a number of airstrips

and airports in the country. We have to know where he landed, if anywhere at all. The number one skeptic's borderline MIB explanation for what happened is that he crashed, of course. Sure. And those same MIBs, when asked, where is all his shit? They say sharks ate him.

I guess he landed in the water and the wreckage floated to the bottom of the sea and sharks ate his cold dead body. They ate everything though? They ate the f***ing plane? No, I said the plane sank to the bottom of the ocean. Oh, okay, okay. But some think that there's one interesting word that Frederick mentioned in that transcript.

He said he was orbiting and the thing was orbiting around him. Which I'm so glad someone called out because whenever I read that I was like, alright, hey, I'm not a pilot. I'm not a pilot. I don't normally think that planes orbit. Right. Because I think planes' whole thing is they have to keep going or else they'll f***ing crash. Yeah, yeah.

So I thought that was weird wording. Some people believe that he was describing a death spin. That's when a plane leans too far to one side and it starts turning in on itself and you basically loop and loop and loop the loop, flying at such a bad angle that it is impossible to pull out from it. And this has become a kind of favorite explanation with pilots

that he was in this death spiral and said, I'm orbiting, I can't get away from it, it's orbiting above me. It wasn't orbiting, it was just potentially even staying still. But he didn't quite know what was going on and then crashed and burned. Deathspin is also the name of a special move that I use when people try and catch me.

If the government is trying to get me to pay my taxes, if the police are trying to arrest me for my crimes. You don't pay your taxes. I cover myself in a stick of butter and yell death spin. And I can essentially slip out of almost any hold. It's really remarkable. Yeah, I saw you in a car park the other day

and the parking attendant came up to ask if you had a ticket and you just, I saw you stripping off, stripping off in the middle of a car park, getting a stick of butter. It was extremely disturbing,

but it did, he was scared and he ran away. It works. Yeah, that's why it's called the death spin. It's because it really scares people to death. It doesn't really inflict any damage. It's weird that they're like, there's something strange about the transcript.

He mentioned the word orbit and that's not usually how the trajectory of a plane would work. He said the thing disappeared. He said the f***ing ship stopped moving and then disappeared. Are we forgetting that? I can't remember in what order it happened, but what's your problem? You're saying...

I'm just saying it's like there's 20 different things that were weird about that broadcast. Oh, right. It's not just like, he said he was traveling at 24,000 feet, but the black box in the scheduled flight pattern said he should have been

traveling at 26. It's like, he said he saw a little gray man in the window of the f***ing thing. He said he was dodging laser blasts

from a sentry turret placed on top of the craft. He said a lot of weird shit. It's not like there's one slight indication that something might have been askew. Eagle-eyed viewers may notice something a little amiss. Right, this is NASA's in-house doctors. Whenever Buzz Aldrin and the gang came back from the moon, there was like a doctor who, his job is just to, he doesn't care about the moon at all. He's just their personal

doctor. And he's like, oh, oh, you had a tummy bug on the day you landed on the moon? Oh, that's very interesting. So tell me about what you ate that day. And then tell me about, did you do any exercise? Okay, that's pretty interesting. And then kind of leave the actual meat and potatoes of the whole moon shit. Being the first man to land on the moon. To all the other guys, you're saying that maybe it's a good point. That maybe it's immaterial what happened to Frederick. It's a mystery that he went missing.

Yeah. But we could, in theory, just presume him dead. Presume him crashed. Presume him crashed and burned. Yeah. But that doesn't mean he didn't see a UFO. Exactly. He could have been so distracted by what was happening that he crashed.

Others say that he might have been seeing the lights from his own plane being reflected above him in the sky. Others say he was, quote unquote, accidentally flying upside down and thought the lights on the ground of the city were actually in the sky. And to those people, I say, how dare you? This is so patronizing. This is ridiculous. That's like saying some people think he saw his own reflection in the glass, thought it was a ghost and crashed the plane trying to kill them both.

It's insane. Was he a child? Was he a six-year-old baby? I just showed you the Cessna, the type of plane we're talking about here. I think you'd know if you were upside down. If you're Top Gun's Maverick, Malv is so adept at flying.

He might not know if he's upside down or not because he's just looping all the time. But Fred knew. Fred knew whether he was upside down or not. I will say, you know i've talked about on the podcast before as someone who has flown in a prop plane and has flown upside down in a prop plane it is i'm not a scientist i don't understand how gravity works sure but there are instances where you are upside down and the world is up and the sky is down, but it doesn't, but you're not.

You don't feel. You're not being pulled up. Oh, I guess because of the whatever to do with like the momentum. I see what you're saying. I see what you're saying. It's almost like the centrifugal force is keeping you just nicely tucked where you are. It's not like your arms are up on like a roller coaster. You're dangling upside down, hanging on by straps.

However it works, the motion, the force, it doesn't feel like you're upside down. Interesting. It's a very strange sensation. So I do agree that sounds insane that he just confused up for down. But, you know, as you said, this is a guy who who's not learning to fly but he's still in the very early days of being a pilot um it's a great point and a fascinating insight from resident investigator rory uh but i think we can all agree that whether he got confused with lights in the ground lights in the sky we've all heard that transcript you you're not confusing that for

five straight minutes with an object flying past you of unknown size at various speeds um with green lights he's like slipping through the sky looking up at earth my god they're just like us a distant civilization has equally evolved his plane crashes into a mc a McDonald's arches sign. Dunk. The beacon's calling me back. I'm in its magnetic pull. Hey, let me tell you, brother,

I've been returning home after a few drunken nights and have been... You can feel the tractor beam. Of the McDonald's golden arches, yeah. Look, we get it. The scientists, the skeptics,

the MIBs think that paranormal believers are all morons. Yeah, sure, I dropped out of school before I could read, but that's because I knew I didn't need school. I was going to make it in the NBA. And yeah, when I hit puberty, I stopped growing. So the doctor said it was the only time he's ever seen a kid hit puberty and stop growing. So I went from being able to dunk in the little kid hoop to getting dunked through the basketball hoop

by all the other kids that were bigger than me. So not only did I not get drafted into the NBA, but I also had to go back and reset the five years I didn't spend in school. But that doesn't make me less smart. That was just a bad business decision on behalf of my coach. I think we're getting a little off topic here, so maybe let's steer it back to the planet. Just because Frederick is scared of UFOs,

that doesn't mean he doesn't know what down is or up is. You were bad at basketball, by the way. So height wasn't even really a problem. You couldn't even dribble the damn thing. You're as tall as I was, proportionally, as a four-year-old. You don't need skill. You you're like you think Michael Jordan can dribble they pass it to him and he dunks when you can dunk from a half court line and show that

half court line is a novelty child-sized court you don't need to dribble but Rory you did make a good point earlier unfortunately you did which is his interest UFOs, it's a bit of a red flag. It is. Some people think that his fascination with UFOs actually got him killed, that that might have even been his intentions of his final flight. Some say the only reason he became a pilot was to search for alien crafts. There you go. That's what I was getting alluding to at the start of this podcast.

It's a bit of a weird situation to be in if this guy, while preparing for his first ever flight, is, you know, talking to the guy at headquarters and they're like, Hey, so this is the plane you're going to be taking out today. Pretty standard engine. Nothing crazy. You're going to be flying around 30,000 feet. And the pilot's like, interesting, interesting. And tell me, officer, does the exoskeleton of the craft,

is it able to withstand the piercing heat of a laser at approximately firing at the sun's temperature? I'm not sure. I'm not sure. I'd have to check the instruction manual for the aircraft. I haven't actually checked that detail. But if I allure your attention, it's got a pretty interesting feature down here. Interesting, interesting. For the landing gear. And the aircraft. I haven't actually checked that detail. But if I allure your attention, it's got a pretty interesting feature down here.

Interesting. Interesting. For the landing gear. And the engine, flooding it full of power. Would that create enough force to be able to escape some sort of traction beam from a greater aircraft? Interesting. What's interesting?

Just the thought of it. The sheer thought of it. Sure. I guess it is. I haven't actually come across an aircraft with, what did you say, a tractor beam?

Some sort of. Is that a steel beam that you would put on a tractor? Sure. On a farm tractor? I don't really. I'm just probably

going to go ahead and ignore some of these questions and again, alert your attention to it because you're going to need to pay attention to this next bit

because the altitude gauge, it is right next to the ejector seat. Interesting. I'm going to have to take your attention here because if you miss this by a millimeter, you could actually be in a fatal situation. So you're going to want to pay attention to – Interesting, interesting.

Sorry, what's interesting? And the altitude gauge? Yeah, I'm showing you where the altitude gauge is. It's right here but next to the ejector seat. If you were to reach an altitude beyond the gauge – Are you actually interested in writing it? I see here the gauge maxes out at 100,000 feet. What if one were to escape the bonds of Earth?

Interesting. Is it not? You would, I guess, technically die from a lack of oxygen. Are you a trained pilot, sir? I'm going to need another craft then. He's learning about airplanes for the first time. Interesting, interesting. I'm like, oxygen supply and food

supply for the Mars mission. Where will it go? Yeah, it only goes up for two hours at a time. Food supply. It's like, you're going to be up there for 25 minutes. If you need food, eat now. You could, I guess, take a peanut butter sandwich in the cockpit. Where are the hibernation pods located for the intergalactic voyage?

Well, I feel nauseous doing the cryogenic freezing. Question about the cryogenic pods. There is no cryogenic pod. Are they able to keep soda cool for lesser flights. The sheer thought of being captured and making love to a creature from another world. Interesting, is it not? The guy has just left the room at this point. He's got his eyes closed.

So interesting. The guy left to go to the bathroom. The thought of making love for the first time in any form. Interesting, is it not, officer? I've been saving myself for them, for her. My alien wife. For her.

He's got such a picture in his mind. Interesting, interesting. Someone who doesn't want there to be another side to a conversation. There could be no one else in that room. Hard cut to him on the alien world talking to a six-eyed bug with human legs. It's like, what sweetie? Aren't you excited to meet me? He's like,

nothing. It's just, I just, I guess I was just expecting Jessica Alba, but green, I think. Yeah, you got to, look, as someone who has explicitly said multiple times on the podcast how day one they will sign up for the alien human breeding program. You got to be able to put your money where your mouth is, all right? We're not talking about it looks just like us except it's got an extra eye.

Yeah. It could be a gas. It could be slime. It could be goo. God, I hope it is goo. That sounds pretty cool. But you've got to be ready to take whatever's out there.

Stop talking. No, absolutely. Getting back to Frederick Rory, here's what we do know. A lot has been said about what his motivations are. All I'm saying is my human kids don't want anything to do with me.

Might as well have an alien one and see if that little guy wants to hang out. Bad attitude as a father. To them, I am a creature from another world. To them, I do speak another language because they live in Belgium. With their mother. Every Christmas, mum says they're going to get a call from their dad and it's just a five minute call of me crinkling a sandwich bag on the other side going,

I'm just so happy to see you kids again. I think that, I just don't know. I think that I'm not going to be able to make it to Belgium this year. I'm standing in the airport, kids. I'm going to get on that plane. Oh, oh, what? Dad, we know what you're doing.

You're doing the canceled flight trick again. Oh, I'm looking at the board and I don't see my flight. This is crazy. I might have to call you guys back, but hey, hey, you. Hey, mister, you got to explain to me why my flight. This would be crazy if my flight was canceled for the eighth year in a row to fly home for Christmas to see my kids. What? You're telling me it's cancelled? And the kid's

old man needs to just stay at the airport pub and drink over Christmas? That's crazy. He's just here in the background like, goong, goong. Now, boarding flight 271 to Hawaii. Alright, kids, gotta go. Old man's gotta wrap it up though. I'll catch you at the next one.

20 more Christmases to come. Aloha. That also means goodbye. A lot has been said about Frederick's motivations, what we do know and what we don't know about what he was thinking. Here's what we do know about Frederick. Yeah.

He had been rejected twice by the Royal Australian Air Force due to inadequate education. I mentioned before that he was studying for his commercial license. I didn't mention he had already failed all five of his exam subjects twice in a row. Then a month before his final flight, he failed three more of the five. Jeez. Frederick also had a reputation for getting himself in trouble in the sky. He'd already had three incidents in the year that he was learning to fly.

On one occasion, he strayed into restricted airspace. Twice, he was given a citation for purposely flying blind into thick clouds. Okay. So they've been quite patient, it seems like, with this dude. So if you take an amateur pilot, throw in, sure, the bright lights of Venus, Mars, Mercury, and Antares in the sky that night, and then sprinkle on some hardcore UFO obsession, does that recipe equal one disappeared Frederick?

Yeah, it really does. You know, if this was an instance that was isolated, a standalone thing that came out of nowhere, that would be one thing. But we are seeing the pieces of a puzzle come together. And that puzzle is forming a logical conclusion, which is unfortunately what we weren't looking for on this podcast. Rory, at the end of every episode, we have to decide whether our paranormal case today actually is paranormal or not. We've talked a lot about what happened

to frederick we've talked about some of the potential theories the paranormal one obviously being he had an interaction with a ufo that he at least saw one uh and that may or may not have caused his crash or disappearance or whatever i suppose what we're coming down on is not whether he was abducted. I don't think that's necessarily on the table. I think it's, was this just an accident waiting to happen? A UFO nut that got into flying? Or did he actually see a UFO that night? A real alien UFO.

And that's what caused this fatal crash. I think the history that he's had combined with an interest in UFOs is creating an environment where this was almost bound to happen. I'm not saying that he didn't maybe see something that night, but for us to take the leap and say that it was a craft from another planet without any evidence other than the radio call that preceded the crash uh that's quite a leap it really is um i think unfortunately just because of that

and the history with the individual i'm gonna have to give it a no this week i think i'm in the same camp rory uh i think there are too many red flags for this one. And I think it's a double note on the case of Frederick Valentich. I mean, when we looked in the Mantell incident, that was a great case of the opposite of this. A pilot who had no history of UFOs was like a fully trained professional pilot. I think one of the best people said it was crazy to think that even if it wasn't paranormal, that he would crash his plane at all. They were like, he knows what he's doing up there. So that one kind of had more stable legs to set up the possibility of a paranormal incident. Yeah. And it's not alone. You know, we had, I'm trying to remember the name of

the case, but there was one a while back in more modern times, I believe, when, if you remember, a commercial airline pilot basically had a football stadium-sized UFO float next to them. And this guy was like, man, this is my job. Like, I fly cargo around the world. I've logged up like 100,000 hours in the air or whatever. I've never seen shit like this before. That's what we want to see

when we hear from an experienced pilot. Not someone who is the first time they get up in the air. They're like, I've seen it, the face of God. Right, yeah, exactly. Which unfortunately is kind of what we have in this week's episode. But a great case nonetheless, quite a famous one. I'm sure many of our listeners will have heard of it.

And I do have to give a quick thank you and shout out to Sam O'Grady, Hallie Weisberg, David Rose, Emily Fellerer, Kieran White Christmas. Oh my God. James Nichols, Jesse Franks, and probably very many more. But those people all wrote in and suggested this over the last five years. How did I miss this? I honestly don't know. I think you were

flying through our email inbox thinking up was down and down was up and reading Frederick Valentich's name backwards. But as we say, we've had lots of great

paranormal cases set recently in Australia. So if you like the flavour of this episode and you want to hear more, go check those out. Check out Pine Gap. Check out All Day Breakfast.

Sorry, our recent case about the egg. Yeah, well, as I said, don't just call it the egg. Treat it with a bit

of goddamn respect. It was a WS, technically. Sure, it was shaped like an egg in an egg cup, but it picked a family up off the road

and chucked them. So we know some stuff's going on in Australia for sure. I mentioned this on the podcast before, but I think it's quite rude and cruel to the victims of the event that Kit thinks there's something funny

about a family getting blown roadside. Yeah, I just... I just want to keep it PG is all. And I just, the fact that you can't see what's funny about that or adult themed, I just think we should move on probably.

What are you talking about? I don't want to talk about it at all actually. The egg sucked a family. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Do you understand? I don't understand

what's funny about this. You're looking at me so sternly. So sternly. You scarred them for life, all right? Treat them with the respect that I treated today's case. You didn't give it any respect. You give it a no. That's true.

That is true. But I think I was quite patient with the story and I did appreciate it and it was a good one I kept my snickering to a minimum

I really did through the most ridiculous parts of course guys if you cannot get enough of this paranormal life you know where to go to get more investigations full length investigations

not only that but weekly behind the scenes after party podcasts not everyone knows that you know the episodes you listen to here on the main feed there's four of them

one a week coming out every week but there's five more podcasts a month coming out over on patreon.com forward slash this paranormal life

damn that's so much extra bonus juicy content Kate it's really cool stuff we actually have a blast talking through everything that's going on

in our world and a debrief of each case as we do it each week. And just as an example, in recent weeks, we announced our first ever world tour of This Paranormal Life. Going to America, going to the UK, performing live. And the patrons had an exclusive pre-sale to that tour because that is one of the rewards that we promise to all our patrons over on Patreon. A patrons pre-sale for all tours.

Not only that, you get bonus episodes, monthly raffles, and even some insane rewards. Like on our 50 bucks tier where you can get a limited edition Knight of the Commune gold and silver coin. Jesus. Yeah, there's a lot over there. tier where you can get a limited edition night of the commune gold and silver coin jesus yeah there's a lot over there if you're a fan of the show you're enjoying it you want more it's the place to go it's a really is uh a great home for this paranormal life i will say though if you really want to get your hands on some juicy paranormal evidence of life existing outside of our solar system here's a little fun fact for you kids at home. You can build your own rockets.

That isn't illegal technically. I think it is. You can do it yourself as long as it's on your own property. Restricted airspace. I think that is. Flying in restricted airspace. Yes, technically is illegal, but a rocket with the right amount of fuel, highly explosive fuel, very dangerous stuff, does not technically fly.

It explodes. Did you say something about kids doing this? Kids at home. Yeah, check it out. And don't ask your parents as well because they'll just give you, don't do it. It's not safe. Oh, it's really dangerous. Who's this guy on the internet that's telling you to send rockets to the moon?

All you need is- I'm telling'm telling you essentially don't do it as much explosive material as you can find in a bin get inside with a little space suit it doesn't even have to be a metal space suit just put a bag on your head don't put a bag in your head don't children stop listening you're gonna get to get us sued. You're going to get us sued. Our lawyer is listening to this, tearing his hair out. And hey, if you feel like you're not ready for it and you don't want to do it without a little advice, that's what I'm here for. I'm so excited to launch. This summer is the first ever inaugural summer

of the Rory Powers Space Academy. The only thing you're launching is a career behind bars in prison. There is the Rory Powers Space Academy. Good luck trying to keep me behind bars, brother, because if I get my hands on my materials, I'm going up. You're a terrorist. I'm going straight out of that. You described building a bomb and putting it inside a bin.

A rocket. I said a bin. A rocket. I said a rocket to the moon. You said put a bomb and put explosive materials inside a bin and wrap a bag around it. You described creating a petrol bomb. Look, if I ever get enough money to get onto a rocket ship that NASA built, and I think I'm going to go see the corners of the universe and see what's out there. That's like thinking you're going to see the corners of North Korea when you go on a guided tour. They're not going to show you the shit they don't want you to see.

So you're saying you have to go yourself to chart your own course. I have to go myself. I have to build my own rocket. And yeah, if that means the V1, the V2, the V3, the V4, 4 through 7 through 9, all exploded, causing horrific burns. That's why we actually shoot all these videos from just the waist up, because my legs look like two breadsticks toasted to pieces. If that's how things have to be done, then that's how they have to be done. That's how things have to be done, and that's how they have to be done. Rory's legs look like vanilla bean pods.

Just completely charred, wrinkled little poles. But I really think V14 is going to work, and the payoff is going to be worth it. Rory's been talking for so long, I actually, I flipped. I think we should put him in a bin with explosive devices. See what happens. It's just me with a space helmet on in a bin and a roll of condoms going, interesting, interesting. See you soon, my sweetheart.

So the condoms indicate you have no intention of breeding anything. It's a pleasure trip only. Not to get into the details or anything. So you're bringing family planning contraceptives. To the corners of the galaxy. It's a noble quest. It really is. And at the end of every episode episode we give a shout out to those

on the 20 and higher tier of our patreon they shout out tears so a special you're funny man so a special thank you today sorry no i know we're doing like shout outs and stuff but i don't i don't think i'm interrupting me i just want to say how funny you are you really make me laugh thanks man you're like you're like a light often in like a really dark world are you drunk so no i'm just i just feel like i don't say it enough like all right thank you on how much i appreciate yeah you're funny too you're funny too hopefully you are because we're professional investigators making a comedy podcast so hopefully we are funny hopefully really people at home agree i just feel like sometimes i don't say it enough

so you're doing you're doing a really good job and i do appreciate it and i do appreciate it so Hopefully. Really? People at home agree. I just feel like sometimes I don't say it enough. So you're doing a really good job. And I do appreciate it. And I do appreciate it. So thank you very much. And I'm doing, and you said I'm funny as well? Yeah, yeah. Okay.

Just double checking. Because mine just felt, sorry, I don't want to interrupt too much, but it felt like mine was kind of like just an impulsive kind of straight from the heart thing. And yours felt like a bit more like an obligation. Like I said at first. Well, I wasn't, wasn't i was planning on yeah i was planning on finishing the episode for sure right yeah so do you think it do you think i am funny though you think it wasn't forced i do think you're funny okay do you think you're funny cool actually i think you're very funny i think you're a great writer and a great uh and a great i needed that other half of this podcast i honestly needed that and I think we're

greater than some of our parts you know I really appreciate that I really needed that today to be honest I only even said the first part to you hoping that I would

get it back so you don't think you don't think that sorry no I just I'll be honest I only said it to you because I want to finish

the f***ing episode and get the shout outs done so alright let's let's do it let's do it but let's keep it funny you're smiling now you're smiling i'm in a good mood yeah i'm in a good mood let's show them how funny we are with a couple of zingers to end the pod all right well here's a little slow ball for you thank you to clinton rorick all right let me just bat this We can bat it back and forth. Boom. Clint, what did you say the name was?

Clinton Rorick. Clinton Rorick. You're smacking your lips so much your mouth is dry. I'm nervous now. Because I feel like before this, we just established how funny we both are. And now none of us is saying a f***ing word. I feel like normally if you relax, that's the best way to be funny. Just relax.

Let the comedy flow forth. You know what I mean? Let the things that you want to say just flow. Clinton, are you my ex-wife? Because you've got the roar ick. Apparently you don't want anything to do with Rory anymore. That's actually pretty good, yeah. You don't even have to get to the why.

Just the R-O-R gives you the ick. So, Clinton, if you'll just give me another chance. That actually elicited a laugh from me. I think I can win you back, Clinton. Thanks also to Molly Jarris. Molly Jarris is very generous. She gave me twice as much jet fuel to put in my bin as I journey to Mars. twice as much jet fuel to put in my bin as I journey to Mars to meet and maybe copulate.

We'll see how things go with the first alien race humans find. Molly was super generous. She was like, oh, you're jumping into a bin with explosives? Here, take some petrol. I said, oh, thanks so much. You know, fuel's expensive, so I really appreciate it. She was like, oh, do you know what? Here's some goddamn matches. Kit, you son of a bitch. Right. I was like oh do you know what here's some goddamn matches kit you son of a bitch right i was like weird to be so rude but i appreciate the

gesture she was like you're gonna want to douse the insides of the craft with gasoline as well just to make sure that thing really goes off you know yeah okay it's great and it's nice because she was really uh mean to us like a week ago uh she was saying how much she hated the show even really bad comments uh wishing something really terrible would happen to us so it's nice to see that she's come around 180 she also said which was really kind actually because i was worried about where i was going to put my belonging she said she'd hold on to all my wallet and shit while i was gone wow because i won't need it in mars that's yeah because what is earth money on mars 100 yeah i see at the end of that email

she says she she thinks I should come too. Oh, that's cool. That's wicked. I guess with the fuel she gave me, we could probably send both of us. Yeah. I got enough rubbers for both of us, brother. Thank you also. Lastly today to Sarah Ford.

Sarah, in order to afford myself a trip alongside Kit to Mars, we're going to have to look at adapting the bin. Craft! The craft, not the bin. It is a bin, though, yeah. But we've modified it. We've modified it. So, Sarah, if you could help us, we need to build kind of like a little sidecar,

a little pod that we can attach to the side of it, and maybe get me a little pair of goggles and a scarf and a hat so I can just ride alongside Kit as we venture to the corners of the and maybe get me a little pair of goggles and a scarf and a hat so I can just ride alongside Kit as we venture to the corners of the universe.

Yeah, just let us know. Let us know what the budget is and we can start drawing up some blueprints. Couldn't agree more. Thank you, Sarah. Thank you to everyone we've shouted out this week.

We'll be back with more shout outs from next week. Thank you to all of our patrons. Thank you for listening to this goddamn episode. Hopefully, we're going to get back on our yes train from next week and Thank you to all of our patrons. Thank you for listening to this goddamn episode. Hopefully, we're going to get back on our yes train

from next week. We'll see what happens because we're going to come back to you on Tuesday with a brand new paranormal tale and before then, on Friday, with the after party

over on Patreon. Until then, remember to live fast, investigate, and die young, babies!