Hi,
I have a question which i would love to get a pilot's perspective on.
I am currently researching a documentary of the disappearance of Pilot, Frederick Valentich in 1978. In a nutshell, Valentich was making a flight from Moorabbin, Victoria to King Island, Tasmania in Australia. During the flight he radioed air traffic control and reported he was being followed by a UFO. This was the last time he or his plane were seen or heard from again. He was flying a Cessna 182L light aircraft and had limited flying experience. The time of the flight was around 7pm, so dark.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valentich_disappearance
Now, one of the proposed explanations is Valentich became disorientated and either
1. was flying upside and mistook his own lights for those of a UFO, before crashing into the ocean
2. mistook Venus (which was at its brightest) and possibly a combination of Mercury, Mars and Antares for landing lights before becoming disoriented and crashing.
or another proposed solution:
3. suffered from hypoxia and hallucinated the aircraft.
I would love to get an actual pilot's opinion on the subject. I am wondering, is such as optical illusion possible? What do you guys think happened?
Thank you very much. Any opinions on the subject would be greatly appreciated.
Joe
