Brass Aboard U.S. Jet Missing Near Soo

SAULT STE. MARIE, Mich. (AP) - Snow and low visibility today hampered planes searching for a United States F89 air force jet fighter missing over the bleak waters of Lake Superior since Monday night.

The missing plane with two high-ranking air force officers aboard mysteriously disappeared at 7:55 p.m. after taking off an hour earlier from Kinross air force base south of here.

Kinross officials said the plane was equipped with two rubber rafts and each officer aboard wore a Mae West life jacket. The men were not identified.

Four DC3s from Trenton and Centralia RCAF bases arrived today to take part in the search. It was expected the weather would clear considerably this afternoon so that the search can get into top gear.

The jet took off at 6:22 p.m. (EST) with about two hours of fuel in the tanks, Kinross spokesmen said. It was last noted by radio some 60 miles northeast of the Keweenau peninsula. This would have put the plane somewhere off the forbidding shores of the stormy lake.

A coast guard cutter was hurriedly dispatched to the area Monday night. Air-sea rescue units were alerted. And state police were joined by conservation officers in the widespread hunt along the shoreline.

The coast guard station at Houghton and the St. Ignace state police post reported early today that the fliers were still missing.

The plane was reported to be carrying flotation gear and officials said it might be adrift in Lake Superior. They said they have received two reports that a plane was down in the water.

Planes from the Selfridge field near Detroit joined the search.

AIR FORCE JET MISSING OVER LAKE
Two Aboard Plane 160 Miles North

A stormy Lake Superior and its rugged shores have not yet revealed the fate of a United States Air Force all-weather interceptor which disappeared Monday night, somewhere between the Keweenaw Peninsula and Michipicoten Island, 160 miles northwest of Sault Ste. Marie.

The interceptor, an F89 Scorpion, on a routine air defence training flight, was reported to be carrying two high-ranking officers, but Air Force officials did not identify them further.

The plane left its base at Kinross at 6:22 p.m. Monday, and was last reported about 160 miles northwest of the Sault over Canadian waters, at 7:55 p.m. Both radar and radio contacts were lost at about that time.

Four DC-3s from Centralia and Trenton, under Squadron Leader Campbell, search master, joined in the search today, but were hampered by bad weather conditions and high seas. Visibility was about one mile. Planes from the Kinross Air Base, air-sea rescue units from Selfridge Field at Mt. Clemens and Coast Guard amphibious planes were called in to help, as were Coast Guard cutters and State Police and Conservation officers who patrolled the rugged shores of Lake Superior.

Officials said the area where the plane was last reported was storm-bound with snow showers and 20 mile-per-hour winds. Heavy, whitecapping seas prevailed throughout the day.

The U.S. Air Force reported that the plane was equipped with flotation gear, and that each of the flyers had rubber life rafts and wore Mae West life jackets.

The reports had been received that a plane was in the water, and the Coast Guard Cutter Woodrush, which was in the vicinity at the time, was dispatched to begin a search.

Weather conditions early today, kept most of the planes grounded, but it was expected that it would clear up considerably later, this afternoon, and permit an all-out search of the Keweenaw-Michipicoten area.

Disappearance of the plane is the third in the Lake Huron-Superior area within the space of one year.

A single-engine plane carrying four football fans to the Grey Cup game from Edmonton, Alberta, disappeared last November 28, in the Georgian Bay region, with no trace of it ever being found.

Two Detroiters taking off from the American Sault Municipal Airport last August 12, and pointing for Wawa, disappeared without a trace in the Lake Superior region.

Continue Hunt For Lost Plane

Flying in five-hour relays, so that planes are constantly in the air, the United States Air Force and RCAF, today, continued the search for a U.S. F89 Scorpion interceptor missing since Monday evening, over Lake Superior.

The plane was last heard from over Canadian waters about 160 miles northwest of the Sault, a few minutes after it left the Kinross Air Base, 20 miles south of the border here.

Sudbury, Ontario, STAR, 24 October 1978, page 1

NO TRACE OF YOUNG PILOT AFTER REPORTING APPROACH OF UFO

MELBOURNE (AP) - Boats and aircraft have found no trace of a young pilot and flying-saucer enthusiast who disappeared with his plane after radioing he was being chased by an unidentified flying object (UFO).

The Australian Air Force said it has received 11 reports of UFO sightings from people along the coast of Bass Strait where the plane disappeared Saturday night.

The pilot, Frederick Valentich, 20, was on a 200-kilometre training flight when he told air traffic controllers in Melbourne he was being buzzed by a UFO with four bright lights about 300 metres above him.

Controllers said in his last message, taped in Melbourne, he radioed: "It's approaching from due east towards me. It seems to be playing some sort of game, flying at a speed I can't estimate."

"It's not an aircraft. It's. . .It is flying past. It is a long shape. I cannot identify more than that. It's coming for me right now."

SEE LIGHTS

A minute later he reported: "It seems to be stationary. I'm also orbiting and the thing is orbiting on top of me also. It has a green light and a sort of metallic light on the outside."

Valentich then radioed the engine of his single-engine Cessna 182 was running roughly. His last message said: "It is not an aircraft."

Valentich's father, Guido, said he hopes his son has been taken by a UFO and has not crashed.

"The fact that they have found no trace of him really verifies the fact that UFOs could have been there," he said.

Valentich said his son used to study UFOs "as a hobby using information he had received from the air force."

"He was not the kind of person who would make up stories. Everything had to be very correct and positive for him."

Believes son kidnapped by space aliens

MELBOURNE (AP) - The father of an Australian pilot who disappeared after reporting a UFO was shadowing him said today he still believes his son was "snatched by beings from outer space."

"Nothing else explains it," Guido Valentich said. "That explanation is as good as any."

"I would rather think he was alive and well on another planet away out there somewhere than dead at the bottom of the sea."

Frederick Valentich, 20, and his rented single-engine Cessna disappeared on a night flight off the southern Australia coast 12 days ago.

He radioed air traffic control in Melbourne that a long shiny craft with four green lights was "playing games" with him.

Then he reported his engine was idling roughly. Seconds later there was a strange metallic sound from his radio and he and his plane vanished.

Australian federal transport investigators are still stumped.

A week-long search by eight light planes and an Australian air force maritime reconnaissance plane found no wreckage and no indication his plane had plunged into the sea.