This article was published in the daily newspaper Daily Colonist, Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, page 3, on October 25, 1978.
MELBOURNE, Australia (UPI). -- The father of a missing pilot whose last radio message reported a strange space vehicle with blinking lights hovering near his plane said Tuesday that creatures from another planet may have captured his son.
The Australian government renewed its search for the Cessna aircraft that disappeared Saturday night and news accounts of the incident touched off a flurry of UFO sightings in the state of Victoria.
"I have a very strong feeling that my son is still alive and is being held by someone from another world," Guido Valentich said at his Melbourne home.
"They may want to hold him for a week or so before returning him. I would rather that than them finding wreckage of the plane."
Valentich's son, 20-year-old Frederick, vanished over Bass Strait on a flight from Melbourne to King Island, 130 miles south.
In his last conversation with air traffic controllers in Melbourne, the younger Valentich said a large object with blinking green lights was "hovering over his plane" and appeared to be "playing games" with him.
