Investigating the Mysterious Final Transmission

This is an IiHart podcast Guaranteed human It's Richard McLlain Smith here. Sadly, due to some very frustrating audio issues, this week's episode will be postponed until next week. On the flip side, I'm currently working on bringing unexplained to video So with any luck, From next week you'll be able to watch episodes as well as listen to them Until then We're going back to the archive for a rerun episode It's been calculated that the likelihood of the human race being the only sophisticated lifeform in the Milky Way is a one in sixty billion chance The Milky Way It's one of two trillion galaxies in the observable universe The following story is considered by many ephologists to be among the most compelling pieces of evidence of an alien visitation to our planet Just what happened in the skies off the coast of Melbourne, Australia in nineteen seventy eight has never fully been accounted for It's a mystery. that remains to this day Unexplained This is unexplained season two episode three the last flight One PM Eastern timeime on Wednesday, february twenty second, twenty seventeen B held a live press conference to make an exciting announcement They had discovered a peculiar solar system located roughly forty light years from Earth the heart of the system was an ultra cool dwarf star It was first spotted in twenty sixteen by astronomers using the Trappist Telescope in Chile. And so it was named Trappist One The star appeared to be orbited by two Earth sized planets In the months that followed, a team of astronomers led by Michel Gillon from the University of Ligge Working with NASA's Spitzer Telescope madeade a further incredible discovery What they found was described by Spitzer Center manager, Seaan Carerey as the most exciting discovery in the history of the department Gillon's team uncovered was not two Earth sized planets but seven. Furthermore Three of the planets were found to be occupying the crucial Goldilocks zone An area of orbit necessary for the potential for water to pool on a planet's surface Such a discovery is the first time ever But so many potentially habitable planets had been found surrounding one single star Not only that, but the masses and radi of these specific planets Mark them out as possibly the best ever. warrant further investigation for life or at the very least. a habitable ecosystem could one day be explored In the words of NASA's associate administrator of the Science Mission Directorate Thomas Sbuchin. The discovery gives us a hint that finding a second Earth is not just a matter of if. in What we have in this story is a major step forward towards answering one of the questions that is at the heart of so many of our philosophies And that is Are we alone You're listening to unexplained im Richard McLan, Smith Also on the panel at NASA's February press conference. W Sarah Siga Professor of Planetary Science and phhysics at MIT. and author of the Sga equation The equation is considered by some to be an improved rendering of the famous Drake equation. In nineteen sixty one The astronomer and physicist Dr. Frank Drake devised his equation To estimate the number of communicative extraterrestrial civilizations that are likely to exist in the Milky Way Galaxy Strake's equation takes into account a number of variables such as the rate of star formation the average number of planets that orbit stars as well as to which fraction exactly. Such planets might actually host sophisticated lifeformms although the equation was intended partly as a point of discussion Many critics were quick to argue that any attempt to estimate such a number would involve too big a margin of error to be reliable However A recent paper published by astrobiologists Adam Frank of the University of Rochester and Woodruff Sullivan of the University of Washington offered an interesting new approach to the question. Rather than trying to estimate the possible number of other extraterrestrial civilizations in our galaxy, They instead ask What were the odds that the human race might be the only one their answ equated to roughly A one in sixty billion Chms So when you also consider that the Milky Way is thought to be only one of two trillion galaxies in the known observable universe Not only is it unfathomably unlikely that other civilizations don't exist in the universe but it is entirely plausible. that some may already have flourished and died out millions of times over before our own we might then wonder much like the great physicist, Enrico Fermi If it is so likely that other sophisticated lifeforms exist out there Why have we never seen them to which many of course, would reply But we have The following story is considered by many ephologists be amongst the best evidence of an alien visitation to our planet What happened exactly in the skies just off the coast of Melbourne, Australia In nineteen seventy eight has never been fully accounted for It is a mystery that remains to this day unexplained It was love at first sight And as is often the case, it was completely unplanned It was sometime in march nineteen seventy eight And Rhonda had only recently turned sixteen That night, she was accompanying her neighbor's son Peter to his regular Friday social event at the Flight sixteen Air Cadet headadquarters in Maryborough, Melbourne. Peter had only recently joined the Australian Air Training Corps and was eager to share his exciting new world with Rhonda what he hadn't banked on bumping into Fred Peter had been showing Ronda around the company buildings. when Fred stepped out of a nearby office and right into her path. Dark head Hansome and elegant in his steel blue uniform He introduced himself to Rhonda. as Frered Felentage before turning back Peter As the pair talked Peter shifted uncomfortably whenever Fred's eyes glanced away towards Rhonda The next week Peter was overjoyed when Rhonda agreed to join him at the Cadet's Saturday Night dance Sadly for Peter, however Wh Randa was really hoping to see that night was Fred Sure enough immmediately after she arrived She spotted him. holding court with some friends at the back of the room Unbeknownst to Ronda too had been hoping all evening two of them might meet again There was only one problem Peter. But Fred had a plan It was well known that Peter's ill mother had given him a pager in case she might ever need him at short notice At some point in the night After waiting for just the right moment slipped away from his table to use the payphone outside momoments later He watched from the side of the hall as Peter received the message with a look of disappointment on his face Of course, Fred knew it was a cruel trick But this was love And sometimes that's all that matters. Peter gestured his apologies to Rhonda and made his way out of the club as Fred returned to the end of Rhonda's table He was almost certain he could see a look of relief across her faace It hadn't gone unnoticed by Rhonda that as the evening progressed, Fred seemed to be making his way further and further up the table until finally he was sitting next to her And so they would remain for the rest of the night as the hours drifted by Telessly. The following Monday M Rhonda's parents And by the end of the week Pay had agreed to make it official A few weeks later Rhonda was introduced to Fred's family at his home in Avondale Heights where she met and fell in love with his parents, Alberta and Guido his twelve year old brother, Ricky And his two twin sisters, Olivia and Laura It was easy to see why Rhonda was so smitten by Fred. He was fun and easy to be around kind and well manned Not to mention Dashing in his training corps uniform But there was one thing that would have to be accommodated It was Fred's dream to be a commercial airline pilot and he dedicated himself to the task obsessively. every spare minute was spent at his flight school. or with his nose buried inside one of his training textbooks Meeting up on weeknights was completely out of the question. But come the weekend, they were like any other teenage couple Fred wasn't a big drinker, but he loved going out with Rhonda Perhaps his favorite moments being the ones they spent on Mount Dandenong where they would just sit and take in the view as the evening sun gave way to the Melbourne City lights And when Fred got the chance to clock up more flight time Ronda was only too happy to accompany him She loved the sensation of it especially when the plane would break through into brilliant sunshine. the clouds stretching out below like a soft blanket. almost as if you could step out and walk across it alone with Fred She'd never felt safer evenven when he would loop the loop. on one of his acrobatic flights as Rhonda got to know Fred a little better There was one thing that stood out more than anything It was his meticulous nature whether itd be making sure his car was running smoothly pride he took in how he dressed. almost markedly in his approach to his flight training by mid May Fred had clocked over one hundred and forty hours and had graduated to a class I license, allowing him to fly at night. by way of celebration took Rhonda on a six hundred mile flight in Newcastle to visit her favorite uncle Michael It had been the perfect day But the following morning, as the pair prepared to fly home Fred seemed a concern He was convinced that someone had tampered with the plane After a short time in the air, The column on the joystick seemed to be loosening N want to leave anything to chance Fred made an emergency descent towards Bankstown Airport in Sydney. Moments later much to his shock, A military helicopter appeared from nowhere and ordered them out of the sky. in his eagerness to get the plane down Fred had strayed marginally into a restricted airspace Minutes later Fred and Rhonda touched down in Bankstown But the incident would inevitably go down as a blemish on Fred's record his abject disappointment in himself was a reminder to reonder. J just how seriously he took his training A T few months later on september the seventeenth. Just over four hundred miles south of Melbourne across the Bass Strait to the far side of Tasmania, A lighthousekeeper spotted something strange in the sky. The keeper worked at the Matsaika Island lighthouse, located off the southern coast of mainland Tasmania He had just completed his evening rounds when he noticed an unfamiliar light in the sky It was extremely bright appeared to be half moon in shape momoments after he spotted it All the power in the lighthouse, inexplicably Cut out Bizari. After rushing to fix the problem, The keeper found no blown fuses or tripped circuit breakers Five minutes later, the generator kicked into action and the power was restored Return to his previous lookout point findind the strange light still hanging in the night sky A closer look with binoculars revealed what appeared to be a small red dot in the middle of the light which seem to move to the side as if the light was turning T minutes later. cut out again and remained out for fifteen minutes before it was finally restored But again, with no obvious cause Moments later The lighthouse keeper watched as the strange light eventually began to shrink as if moving away from the island until it had completely disappeared Back in Melbourne, a few weeks later, On Friday, thirteenth of October Fred and Rhonda drove to their favourite spot up in the Dandenong Ranges That night, they talked for hours Down below, the Yarra Valley stretched out before them blanketed by the warm luminescent glow of a setting spring sun had never been more happy. Having just turned twenty passing his exams and was well on the way to becoming a commercial airline pilot And of course, he also had Rhonda At some point, Fred pulled a box from his pocket and opened it to reveal a ring Will you marry me? he asked They'd known each other little over six months. But everything about this felt right They laughed at the madness of it all Rhonda could barely hide her excitement, as Fred slipped the friendriendship band onto her wedding ring finger. But then for a second, she paused Not only was it Friday the thirteenth But wasn't it bad luck to place a friendship ring on the wedding ring finger? she thought for Fred didn't believe in such things Besides, she would have the real thing soon enough In the meantime He asked that she keep it all a secret until Rhonda's seventeenth birthday in December Ronda didn't see Fred for the rest of the week prereoccupied as he was with preparations for his latest milestone a flight across open water. But on the Friday drove to Rhonda's house and the pair made arrangements to meet for the flight the next day Ronda agreed that she would meet him at the airport if she could get off work in time Before he left that night They kissed on the doorstep kiss that seemed to last a lifetime Next morning. Saturday october twenty first Fred was up at six AM, buzzling with excitement as he went over the flight plans in his head After completing a shift at the Aussie Disposal store at one hundred thirty nine Puckle Street where he worked Fred was soon on the freeway racing towards Murabin Airport in southeast Melbourne. Fred had a three hour lesson to negotiate before he could take his flight. But as was often his way, he arrived early So he did what he always did in such circumstances He took out his textbooks and revised until one hundred and thirty when the class began back in West Preston Rhonda was eagerly awaiting the end of her shift She'd arranged with her parents to drive her down to the airport after her ship being held up by a delayed coworker Rhonda had no choice but to cover until she arrived. But as the minutes ticked by Rhonda lost her ride She would miss this flight. But Fred would be home before long And after all She had the evenings stance to look forward to down at Murabin airport. Fred was disappointed not to find Ronda, waiting for him by his car after the lesson. In truth The thought of flying over the water alone made him a little nervous But a quick meteorological briefing revealed that the weather would be on his side and with sunset not due for another two hours He would have more than enough time to complete the journey before it got dark At seventeen twenty three hours, Fred lodged his flight plan at the briefing office He would fly southwest along the coast to Cape Otway. before heading south over the bus Strait to King Island the north of Tasmania before returning back to Murabin Airport. There was still no sign of Rhonda. But Fred decided to give her a few more minutes and headed off to grab some food in the meantime. There was a new place that had just opened nearby that he' liked to go And so it twells a short time later The Fred was sat in his car Eating McDonalds gazing out withfully At the sea, he was soon to cross When he finally made it back to the airport with time running out and Rhonda yet to arrive Fred had little choice but to set off alone afterfter a further round of checks He jumped into the Cesna VHDSJ taxed the small plane to the edge of the runway taking off into the early evening sky in West Preston, Rhonda had returned home and was getting herself ready for a night out with Fred Excited to hear all about his trip to King Island But by the time it had got to eight PM Rhonda was growing concerned that there had been no word from Fred. Rhonda never made it to the dance but instead spent the night sat all made up on her bed staring out her window at the street below for any sign of her fiancee At some point, she must have fallen asleep. as she found herself being woken by the sound of the ABC news drifting in from her father's bedroom She couldn't quite make out all of it onlyly that an unnamed pilot had gone missing over the Bath Strait Rhonda's heart sunk deep into her chest. taking an age to get through to Murabin airport when they eventually picked up Rhonda received the devastating news The missing pilot. Fred Over the next few days, Wave after wave of search and rescue teams were dispatched unsuccessfully in the Hunt for Fred's missing plane for Ronda and Fred's family Their grief would have been unimaginable For the authorities, there were plainly only two likelihoods that Fred had got into some kind of difficulty pererhaps becoming disorientated over the water. leading to a catastrophic pilot error He had deliberately flown his plane into the sea. Since Fred had been taking a routine path over a manageable stretch of water As noted in the Cps analysis report It is most probable that the wreckage would have been sighted disappeared without a trace And then somethingomething extraordinary came to light. On Wednesday, the twenty fifth of October Fred's father, Guido was invited to listen to the final recording of Fred's air traffic control communications to formally identify the pilot As soon as the recording crackled to life Guido's heart broke for the thousandth time as the voice of his son came out at the speaker for what everybody in the room heard next chilled them all A nineteen hundred hours Fred reported arriving successfully over Cape Otway. before heading south over the open water The next communication was received at nineteen hundred and six hours Melbourne, this is Delta Sierra Juliet. Is there any known traffic below five thousand Delta Sira Julet No known traffic It seems to be a large aircraft below five thousand type of aircraft is it I cannot affirm It has four bright, it seems to me like landing lights. Melbourin, this is Delta Sierra Juliet The aircraft has just passed over me, at least a thousand feet above Roger, and it is a large aircraft confirmed unknown due to the speed it's traveling Is there any Air Force aircraft in the vicinity Delta Sierra Juliet No known aircraft in the vicinity. Melbourne, it's approaching now from Due East towards me It seems to me that he's playing some sort of game He's flying over me two three times at a time at speeds I could not identify Delta Sira Julia. and confirm you cannot identify the aircraft. affirmative. It's not an aircraft It's a long shape, You cannot identify more than that It has such speed What I'm doing right now is orbiting and the thing is just orbiting on top of me It's got a green light and a sort of metallic like it's all shiny on the outside. It's just vanished Delta Sierra Juliette confirmed that the aircraft has vanished It's now approaching from the southwest Roger, what are your intentions intentions are to go to King Island Melbin That strange aircraft is hovering on top of me again It's hovering and it's not an aircraft. And then there is nothing Melbourne attempts communication again But after seventeen seconds of dead air with nineteen hundred and twelve Oids Fred's Radi Full silence Within days Gripping final transmission made its way to the press before long The papers were awash with speculation concerning Fred's fatal encounter with a UFO something else emerged Six weeks previously Sergeant Jack Woodward of Curry Police on King Island had received a call concerning strange lights that had appeared off the north of the island A nurse at King Island Hospital I've seen them too Two other witnesses going as far as to write into the King Island newews on september twentieth We are writing to your paper, they said to see if anyone other than ourselves to seen any sightings of strange moving lights in the sky The Department of Transport were quick to quash the rumors, with one spokesman suggesting that if Fred's plane had inverted He would have seen the light from Cape Ottway and King Island H houses. reflected on Cloud cover above him But not only were there no clouds in the sky that night, As the spokesman was forced to admit The conditions were near perfect. and would have afforded Fred almost unlimited vision. Reports from Fred's friends and acquaintances began to emerge They revealed a sober, studious, and diligent flight student with the steely determination to succeed with one friend noting that Freda was never prone to panic As Rhonda had also attested, during her many hours of flying with him Fred's instructors, Warren Dunlop and Martin Dalton described him as sincere and sensible A little quiet at first, but quick to open up once you got to know him Rberta and Iuido The evidence spoke for itself and with the papers more than happy to exploit their grief for the cosmic speculation There was little room for anything else As for sixteen year old Rhonda She had barely had time to grieve Such was the incessant hounding of the press At one point, she even fled to a motel in Cape Otway. only to find a crowd of journalists waiting for her in the foyer And the truth was There really was nothing more that she could tell them After two weeks, the search for Fred was called off. However although they may not have found the wreckage in the subsequent widening of the investigation Something new was about to come to light It seemed that Fred had not been entirely honest with his parents or Ronda On november first, the investigative team received a letter from Captain Edwin Robert Barnes former tutor of Freds In nineteen seventy six Fred had failed in his attempt to join the Royal Australian Air Force It was not entirely unexpected, since not only had Fred left school at sixteen, but his academic record had been poor But Fred would not be deterred And he resolved that whatever he lacked in intellect, He would work ferociously hard to make up for in effort Although he would never realize his dream of making the Air Force He could still make it as a commercial airline pilot Sadly This ambition too hit a snag when in nineteen seventy seven Fred sat for and failed all five of his commercial pilot's license theory exams It was at this point that an instructor, impressed by Fred's determination recommended that Captain Barnes help cutor him through his resets. in Barnes's letter He speaks with great warmth and affection Boy who having not made it to the Air Force Nonetheless, attended squadron headquarters in a civilian capacity Working without pay or allowances until accepted into squadron staff as an airman A boy who despite failing his exams. was a battler with the determination and stability to achieve his goal of becoming a commercial airline pilot Fred eventually reset his exams in July of nineteen seventy eight. Barnes was overjoyed when Fred called him up in mid September to tell him with great excitement that he had finally passed Oly It was a lie a lie that Fred had been hiding from not only his beloved tutor but also his family. Ronda Suddenly, some of the more confusing aspects of Fred's final days taken on a different shape Wh he had proposed to Ronda. on Friday the thirteenth Before the day, they regularly celebrated as a monthly anniversary. Why if he was intending to land at King Island He hadn't requested landing lights to be turned on or why he told Rhonda. that he'd be back to take her out. told his father that he wouldn't return tntil at least ten PM. possible But rather than having been plucked from the sky by an unknown entity Fred had, in a sense, already been taken away some time ago by something else equally intangible in the end, A this young man whose only dream was to prove to the world that he had what it took to be a pilot finally been broken by the crushing realization that no matter how hard he tried, His head would never match up to his heart A young man, too pained to reveal the truth to his family Ronda. to whom he felt he had promised so much Thank you as ever for listening. Uneexplained is an Avy Club productions podcast, created by Richard McLan Smith All other elements of the podcast, including the music are also produced by me Richard McLan Smith. Unexplained the book and audioobook is now available to buy worldwide You can purchase from Amazon, Barnes and Noble wateraterstones and other bookstores Please subscribe to and rate the show wherever you get your podcast. And feel free to get in touch with any thoughts or ideas regarding the stories you've heard on the show Perhaps you have an explanation or a story of your own you'd like to share You can find out more at unexplainedpodcast. com and reaches online through X and Blue Sky at unexplained Pod and Facebook at facebook. com Forward slash, unexplained podcast