Bass Strait 1978: The Final Call and the Plane That Vanished with a Strange Object

On the evening of 21 October 1978, twenty-year-old pilot Frederick Valentich took off from Moorabbin Airport near Melbourne in a Cessna 182L registered as VH-DSJ. He planned to fly to King Island and return. The training trip covered about 235 kilometres across Bass Strait, the waterway between mainland Australia and Tasmania.

On the evening of 21 October 1978, twenty-year-old pilot Frederick Valentich took off from Moorabbin Airport near Melbourne in a Cessna 182L registered as VH-DSJ. He planned to fly to King Island and return. The training trip covered about 235 kilometres across Bass Strait, the waterway between mainland Australia and Tasmania.

On the evening of 21 October 1978, twenty-year-old pilot Frederick Valentich took off from Moorabbin Airport near Melbourne in a Cessna 182L registered as VH-DSJ. He planned to fly to King Island and return. The training trip covered about 235 kilometres across Bass Strait, the waterway between mainland Australia and Tasmania.

On the evening of 21 October 1978, twenty-year-old pilot Frederick Valentich took off from Moorabbin Airport near Melbourne in a Cessna 182L registered as VH-DSJ. He planned to fly to King Island and return. The training trip covered about 235 kilometres across Bass Strait, the waterway between mainland Australia and Tasmania.