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Prologue
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In a span of less than two years, two of the most perplexing aircraft disappearances occurred. Each was a world away from the other. One off Australia; the other off Puerto Rico in the Bermuda Triangle. Yet both were strikingly similar. Both pilots were sober individuals, one was a US Marine. Both reported a strange object harassing or, at the very least, highly interested in their aircraft. Both could not describe exactly what it was. But in both cases, when it came in closer, it apparently caused a disruption of radio communication and cut out electro-magnetic power, causing the engine to sputter. Neither aircraft left any trace. Both carried ELTs, automatic alarms that are jettisoned when the aircraft impacts. This triggers them to send their electronic SOS signals, guiding rescuers to the point of the incident. Yet in both these incidents they were hushed, for no signal was ever picked up.
The cases which will be placed in this section of the Web Site are not intended to explain the UFO phenomenon, only to document that it does indeed exist; and, most relevant to the subject at hand, that it is often associated with missing aircraft. Theories concerning how they may be associated with the Bermuda Triangle are dealt with in the Theories Section.
Case 1 -- October 21, 1978:
A young man boarded his Cessna 182L at Moorabbin, Australia. His name was Frederick Valentich. The weather was good. The time was 6:19 P.M. In a short time Valentich, presumably, would be dead. What passed before his eyes before he vanished was recorded by Melbourne Flight Service Unit and reproduced in a Summary Report issued by the Department of Transport of Australia. Since it is quite short, it follows in toto and verbatim in the thumbnails below.
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The disappearance of Fred Valentich is quite well known to those in UFOlogy. However, the following report is completely obscur. In a sort of “if they don’t ask, don’t tell them” type of attitude, such reports are filed away in the US. I stumbled across it quite by accident. In the database search of those planes listed as missing by the National Transportation Safety Board, the “Brief” I received contained nothing remotely interesting. (A “Brief” is a little one page chit which gives pertinent but terse information which is later expounded in the Factual Aviation Report). It held no narrative whatsoever. There was no indication this was any kind of special incident. Yet when the Factual Report arrived with so many others I had ordered, this shocking information was discovered. This report is much longer than the above, full of incidentals, copies, so forth. Only the relevant pages of the narrative and the in-flight recordings are given here for brevity sake. (Taken from: Factual Aviation Accident Report: Near Puerto Rico, June 28, 1980, Ercoupe 415-D, N3808H )
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Case 2 -- June 28, 1980:
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At 6:10 P.M., Jose Maldonado Torres and his friend, Jose Pagan Santos, left the Dominican Republic in an Ercoupe marked N3808H. They were bound for home in Puerto Rico. At 8:03 P.M. dialogue was picked up by several stations and aircraft. For a limited time only, the narrative in the icons below has been replaced by the actual audio of this strange Mayday. It is transcribed completely in Into The Bermuda Triangle By Gian J. Quasar.
Please give it time to load. It is 3.44 minutes long. You may have to listen several times to pick up all the dialogue clearly.
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(If one notices the courses Torres claims to be flying, one notices how erratically he was trying to avoid the object, another indication of his panic than the tenor of his voice. If this is not the case, the drastically alternating compass readings he transmits may be indicative of a frequently reported phenomenon in the Bermuda Triangle: compasses going berserk--a phenomenon also noted during UFO encounters.)
Having the advantage of a last radar position, the search for this aircraft was quick and thorough, concentrating in its last known area. However, nothing was ever found. No ELT signal was ever picked up by any station, and no explanation was ever given for the “weird object.” Jose Pagan Jimenez, the owner of the plane (and the father of the passenger, Jose Santos), was an Aero Police Officer for Puerto Rico. He flew many over flights of the ocean, including the last and most poignant in his own helicopter in vain hopes of finding his son. The search was then discontinued with the typical “negative results.”
There is really no easy explanation for such incidents as the two above. Unlike the lurid and bogus press accounts by hucksters and grandstanders who describe in detail “Flying Saucer” encounters, when the real UFO thing happens, the pilots are incapable of describing what is really going on and exactly what kind of object it is. That something genuinely unusual happened seems proven by the tragic results of such encounters. The true incidents, because perhaps the grave results are not conducive to ratings, are quickly glossed over.
These encounters are hardly new. The words of Valentich or Torres strike a familiar chord with those last words on January 7, 1948, of Capt. Thomas Mantell when he, in hot pursuit of a radar object by Godman Field, Kentucky, last spoke of a silver object, huge, and making fast speed. His P51 Mustang was then next seen raining down from the clouds.
As time goes by, UFO sightings have become more scarce over land or near populated centers. However, more and more are being seen over water, away from populations and in inaccessible regions. Australia isn’t particularly noted for them off her east coast, but the area where Torres and Santos vanished has a quite a history. During the “flap” of UFO sightings off this area, (off Cabo Rojo and the eastern seaboard), in 1972, some derelict vessels were found off the coast throughout the peak times of the flap, between August and October.
Any further discussion of this phenomenon is reserved for Into the Bermuda Triangle. However, suffice it to say that such reports as these above keep “UFOs,” whatever they may be, in the forefront of the minds of those who seek to explain the Bermuda Triangle. The greatest mystery they pose is not just how they make a plane or crew vanish . . .but why . . .
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