Image TileImage TileImage TileImage TileImage TileImage TileImage TileImage TileImage TileImage TileImage TileImage TileImage TileImage TileImage Tile
Image size: 5632x7680 Scale: 35% - PanoJS3
Page overview thumbnail

Article text

Son alive,
says pilot's
father
MELBOURNE: The father of
missing pilot Mr Frederick Valen-
tich denied yesterday that his son
had staged his disappearance.
"I think he is still alive", Mr Guido
Valentich said as a Department of
Transport aircraft resumed the search
for Mr Frederick Valentich, 20, who
went missing in a light aircraft on a
flight to King Island, off the Victorian
coast, a week ago.
Mr Valentich said he believed his son
had been taken by an unidentified
flying object. When asked where his son
might be, Mr Valentich replied, "Your
guess is as good as mine. All I am
worried about is that he was released
in a different area, very far away from
where he was taken".
Mr Valentich took last week off from
work to keep a vigil by his telephone to
await news of his son, who worked for
the Air Training Corps on a voluntary
basis and spent a lot of time preparing
for his commercial pilot's licence.
Mr Valentich said a Rosanna man
contacted him on Friday to say he had
sighted the same UFO as his son. Mr
Valentich said he had arranged to meet
the man, 58, an engineering firm work-
er, on Tuesday.
A twin engined Aero-Commander
aircraft from Moorabbin airport made
sweeps of Victoria's south-west coast
between Torquay and Peterborough
yesterday.
A spokesman for the Department of
Transport said, "They are looking to see
if anything has been washed ashore. If
anything is found which can be positive-
ly identified as coming from the plane,
the search will be reactivated".
It was announced on Friday that tests
on oil found in the Bass Strait in the
area Mr Valentich is believed to have
disappeared showed it was marine oil
and not from an aircraft.
$