Australia · 21 October 1978

Bass Strait, 1978

Documented

A real accident-investigation file on a pilot who reported an object orbiting on top of me and then went off the air, and the department's own paperwork ends with no cause determined.

Where
Bass Strait, between Cape Otway and King Island, Victoria
When
21 October 1978
Who reported it
1 pilot in recorded radio contact with Melbourne Flight Service; ground witnesses of a green light
Entities described
None reported
Handled as
INVESTIGATED / UNRESOLVED
Evidence class
GOV-1

The record

An official file preserves that a report was made and examined. It does not, by itself, establish what was seen.

The document is attached to this entry.

What is not settled

The strongest counter-case is mundane: a low-hour night VFR pilot, possible spatial disorientation and inverted flight (which would explain the orbiting object as his own lights), fuel and flight-plan irregularities, no wreckage. The file also records that the original audio tape was recycled back into service on 6 April 1979, so the primary recording no longer exists.

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