At 8:30 p.m. on August 20th, 2010, a 76-year-old man named Jong walked
through the streets of New Taipei City, which is a major city in northern Taiwan. Jong was on the end of an
evening walk, and he was making his way back towards his daughter’s apartment, where he was also staying. And as Jong
neared the apartment, he happened to notice there was a street lamp right outside with this big poster attached to
it that he hadn’t seen before. And as he got closer, he saw there was also this picture of this middle-aged woman whose
name was Chun Yanui. And apparently she was missing. And not only that, she also
lived in the same building that his daughter lived in. Except Chun was actually a dementia patient. and she was
staying on the fifth floor of this apartment building complex where there was this memory care facility and that’s
where she was being taken care of. And about a week earlier, she had gone out for an evening walk. This is what it
said on the poster and just not returned. And so since the week before, police had been out looking for her and
her family and friends. They were putting these posters up and it was clear, you know, nobody had found her yet. Now, Jung had never met this woman,
but he sort of felt bad for her. And so he found himself staring at this picture and trying to memorize her face, you
know, in the off chance that he just saw her somewhere, he could report her to the authorities and hopefully get her rescued. And so after staring at the
picture for a little bit longer and sort of feeling bad for this woman, Jung turned and just continued inside the
apartment building. And once he was in the apartment building, he made his way over to the elevator. He hit the up
button and he waited. And then a moment later, there was a ding and the doors opened up. He stepped onto the elevator.
He pressed the button, the doors closed, and then Jung waited as he headed up to his daughter’s apartment on the seventh
floor. But as he was going up, he noticed he had accidentally hit the sixth floor, not the seventh floor. And
right at that moment, he saw that he was reaching the sixth floor. And so the elevator car was slowing down. And so he
just was like, “Oh, whoops.” And he hit floor 7. But by the time he hit floor seven, the car had come to a stop on
floor six and the doors were opening. Like it would need to reset. Doors open on six, they close, and then he’d go to
seven. Like, this is no big deal. And so Jong is just waiting, you know, for these doors to open, shut, and go up one
more floor. However, when the doors opened on floor 6, Jang is looking
straight out, and he could not believe what he saw, and he just began to
scream. Around the same time this was happening, Jang’s daughter was finishing up her shift at work when she got a
phone call and she saw it was coming from her dad and he rarely called her when she was at work. So, this was sort
of confusing and surprising and so right away she picked it up and she answered and immediately she hears her dad
screaming incoherently. He’s obviously terrified and all Jong’s daughter can hear is that her dad is saying he’s
trapped. He’s trapped in an elevator and he doesn’t know what to do. And so, you know, Jong’s daughter is getting scared
just based on what her dad sounds like. She doesn’t really know what’s going on, but she told her dad like, “Okay, okay.
I’ll I’ll call the building. We’ll get you some help. Like, stay calm. You’re going to be okay.” But her dad just continued rambling and he was totally
incoherent. And eventually, you know, Jong’s daughter just said, “Okay, Dad. Like, just hang tight. I’m going to get
you some help.” And then she hung up. And then she immediately called her apartment buildings administration and
emergency services line and told them, “Hey, I think my dad is stuck on one of your elevator cars. He’s really upset.
Can you please help him?” And after getting the emergency services to, you know, get spun up into action to go save
her dad, Jong’s daughter left work, hopped in her car, and began rushing home. It would take Jong’s daughter
about 40 minutes to get back to her apartment. And by the time she got there, she fully expected her dad would
be safely out of the elevator. I mean, he was obviously very upset, but she had called the building. They were on it.
They were going to get him out. But when she went inside the lobby of the apartment building, she saw a crowd of
police officers just standing there. She didn’t see her dad anywhere. And before she could even ask any questions, she
noticed one of the officers was on the phone. And clearly, just based on what was being said by this officer, he was
talking to her father. Like, he was talking to somebody who was hysterical. And this officer was doing his best to
try to calm him down and sort of talk him through what was happening. And so Jong’s daughter like immediately walks
up to this officer and says, “Hey, you know, I’m his daughter. The guy who’s stuck in the elevator. I’m his daughter.
What’s going on? I I would have figured he’d be out by now. Like what’s happened?” At this point, one of the officers confirms that, you know, this
really is this man’s daughter. And he pulls her aside and he explains to her that yes, your dad is still in the
elevator because we can’t get him out. The reality is is this is not a normal situation here. He’s trapped in there
and really the only way for him to get out is for him to do something really
specific. Like us and the building staff like we can’t do anything. He has to do
this one really specific thing and right now he’s refusing to do it. He’s too
panicked. He’s too scared. We’re trying to calm him down but it’s not working. And so Jong’s daughter asked this
officer, “Can you please explain to me what you’re talking about? Like what is this specific thing you want him to do?
I don’t get it.” And at that point, the officer kind of composed himself and explained to the daughter, you know,
what was really going on inside of that elevator car. And after Jong’s daughter heard it, I mean, she was horrified and
she immediately understood why her dad was so upset and unwilling to do this
one particular thing that would save him, but would be pretty awful. She got it. But she knew she would have to hop
on the phone and convince her dad that he had to do it. Like there was no other way. And so she walked over to the
officer who was on the phone with her dad. She took the phone and she began talking her dad through, you know, what
he really needed to do here. She basically gave him a pep talk and said, “Dad, for me, you got to find the
strength and do this thing and get out of there.” And sure enough, just a couple of minutes later, the elevator
doors in the lobby chimed and opened up and Jong came stumbling out. He looked
horrible, disheveled, but he was okay. And right away, police officers rushed
towards him, but they bypassed him and went into the elevator and immediately
surrounded something in the elevator car. It would turn out that missing woman, Chun Yan Chui, the woman who was
on that poster that Jang saw before he walked into the apartment building, well, she really had gone missing a week
earlier on her evening walk. But everybody thought she got lost while she was on that walk because she was a
dementia patient and so, you know, she had memory issues. But the reality was she actually did come back to her
apartment. However, when she got on the elevator, she actually made the same mistake that Jong did. Now, she was not
trying to get to the seventh floor. She was trying to get to the fifth floor, but she accidentally pressed the sixth
floor. So, up she goes. She gets to the sixth floor, the doors open up, she
steps off the elevator car, and she’s immediately completely confused. And for
what it’s worth, it didn’t matter that she had dementia. Anybody who got off on the sixth floor would likely be confused
if you had never been to this building before, because the sixth floor was actually a private residence. And the
person who lived on that floor was so worried about people breaking into their private residence that they had
installed a metal gate in front of the elevator doors. And so unless you had
the key to get through this gate, when you got off on the sixth floor, you basically would step onto a little
platform that basically is the hallway leading into the sixth floor and then you’d be hit with the gate. And so
that’s exactly what happened to Chun. She got off on the sixth floor, maybe thinking this is the fifth floor. She
stepped onto that, you know, little narrow strip that you could actually stand on on the sixth floor before you
reach the gate. And then as she was trying to figure out like, where am I? This isn’t the fifth floor. This doesn’t make any sense. There’s a gate in front
of me. The doors to the elevator closed. And she had no way to open them up again
because the buttons to access the elevator were beyond the gate. And so suddenly Chun is standing in this narrow
space. The doors have closed behind her and she can’t do anything. She’s trapped between the gate and the elevator doors.
And even though people are using this elevator right behind her, the only
person who would come to the sixth floor is the owner of that residence. And they were on vacation. And so for days and
days, Chun is just trapped basically in between the gate and the elevator with
no one having any idea she was there. She’s calling out. She’s doing everything she can to get somebody’s attention, but nobody can hear her. And
after 5 days of this, when the owner of this residence didn’t come home cuz they were on vacation, she eventually died
cuz she didn’t have food or water or anything. She was just standing there for 5 days. And so she dies. And then a
couple of days later, Jong accidentally rides to the sixth floor. He’s like,
“Oh, shoot. I need to go to seven.” He hits seven, but the doors open on six.
And when they do, Chun’s body, which had been basically frozen in the standing position, fell backwards onto him,
pinned him to the ground. He starts screaming and freaking out. He gets out from underneath her, but her body, which
was in rigor mortise at this point, is stiff. And she was lying like a board on the ground with her feet jutting out
onto the sixth floor and her upper half inside of the elevator. And so she was blocking the doors from closing. And so
Jong is freaking out. He’s calling his daughter. He can’t believe this. There’s this dead person in here. And
eventually, police get involved. And they tell Jong, “You just got to move the body.” So, the doors will close. But
again, her body is heavy and it’s stiff and she’s obviously deceased. She’s starting to decompose. And Jong
basically couldn’t handle it. And he was unwilling to move her body until his daughter hopped on the phone and said,
“You got to do it.” At which point, he managed to lift her up, get her out of the way, and kind of push her off to the
side of the elevator car. He rode down to the bottom at which point the police came in and handled the situation. Now,
the owner of the sixth floor residence was not held criminally responsible despite putting that gate up that
created this trap that killed Chun. However, despite that, he would end up paying Chun’s family about $97,000
equivalent just to compensate for her death.
[Music] On the morning of August 18th, 2018, a
41-year-old man named Vladimir Castenko stepped out of a taxi onto a desolate road in the middle of the Alaskan
wilderness, miles and miles from civilization. All he had with him were his cell phone, a solar powered charger
for his phone, and a backpack that contained some clothes and 5 lbs of oatmeal. Vladimir bent down and leaned
into the taxi to pay the taxi driver. And as he was doing that, the driver looked up at him and just said, “Are you
sure you want to do this?” And Vladimir just smiled and nodded and said, “Yep, I’m going to be just fine. Don’t worry
about me.” Now, the taxi driver did not really buy this and just looked at Vladimir like he was completely insane.
But Vladimir wasn’t shocked. I mean, this is kind of how everybody reacted to him when he told them about this trip he
was doing into the wilderness. you know, when he had brought it up to his family the first time, they and all of their
family friends had basically rallied together to try to stop Vladimir from going on this trip. It was way too
dangerous. But Vladimir said, “Guys, I’m going. Like, you can’t stop me. I’m doing this. It’s important to me.” And
at that point, when, you know, the family and friends knew they couldn’t change his mind, they shifted and said, “Well, at least, you know, bring a gun
or bear spray or something to protect yourself.” But Vladimir also refused that, too. He said, “Nope, I don’t need
any of that because the only thing I need is God. God is going to protect me.” So Vladimir was extremely
religious. He actually had left his home country, Russia, when he was in his early 20s because he was being
persecuted for his Christian beliefs. And so now in the United States, he lived out in Washington State and
basically lived his life like a monk. I mean, he spent the majority of his time, you know, basically praying and
meditating and reading religious books. and he would often go on these multi-day long fasts. He did work part-time as a
mechanic, but he rarely charged his clients when he did work. And then even when he did charge them, he was working
so few hours that the money he was making was totally unsubstantial. But again, you know, the way Vladimir looked
at this is he didn’t need money because ultimately God would take care of him. But despite all of his fasting and his
praying and, you know, his generosity lately, Vladimir had been feeling really
lost. like he did feel deeply spiritual, but at the same time he didn’t really
feel fulfilled. Like he felt like he was missing purpose in his life and it was really starting to bother him. And so it
was around this time that Vladimir decided to go on this big trip. One of
Vladimir’s family friends was this guy named Dmitri Krin. And he owned this small cabin way out in the middle of the
Alaskan wilderness. Now Dimmitri didn’t use this cabin very much, but he kept it in great shape. It was fully furnished.
There was a wood burning stove inside and the pantry was stocked with three years supply of food. And so at some
point when Vladimir and Dmitri were talking and Vladimir talked about feeling sort of lost and wanting to
reconnect with the spirituality and find his purpose in life, well at some point Dmitri said, “Well, hey, if you want,
you can go use my cabin and sort of disconnect from society and go retreat out there and sort of focus on yourself
and sort of get right with the world. You know, you’re welcome to go out there anytime you want. You can stay out there as long as you want and for free, no
problem. And Vladimir had happily accepted. And now here he was standing on this desolate road in the Alaskan
wilderness, watching as the taxi driver drove away. Except he wasn’t even close to the cabin. I mean, he was in the
middle of nowhere already. But he still had to go 14 more miles with no trail to
make his way to this cabin. But Vladimir was so excited. He really felt like this
was the thing he needed to figure out his purpose in life. And so he put his backpack on, took a deep breath, and
began to hike. 3 months later, on November 3rd of 2018, Dimmitri, Vladimir’s friend who owned this cabin,
found himself in his plane flying over the area roughly where his cabin was.
And Dimmitri was feeling very concerned. So obviously, Dimmitri suggested
Vladimir go out and use this cabin. And so he was totally open to the idea of it. But Dimmitri had also told Vladimir
that when he went out there, he really ought to bring a gun with him or if nothing else, at least some bear spray
or something to protect himself because this is truly the wild. You are not the top of the food chain anymore. And you
want to be able to protect yourself. But Vladimir had said no. He would not be going with any sort of weaponry that you
know, God was going to look after him and he’d be fine. And Dimmitri’s like, “That’s a bad plan.” But he just could
not convince Vladimir to change his mind. And so ultimately, Dimmitri sort of regretted even suggesting this idea
because he didn’t expect Vladimir to go unarmed. But he felt like, you know what, it’s already in motion. And so he
told Vladimir, “Okay, fine. You know, do your thing, but when you’re out there, I need you to communicate with me
regularly so I know you’re okay.” And Vladimir promised he would. And at first, that is exactly what happened.
Vladimir, you know, made the 14 mile hike from where he was dropped by the taxi. He got to the cabin. He got all
set up and then just about every other day or every few days, he would hike up this nearby mountain where there was
cell phone service and he would update Dimmitri. He would tell him that things were going great. He was spending lots
of time meditating and praying and, you know, he was foraging for berries and there was this this pesky squirrel that
kept coming in and stealing his food. So, he was trying to figure out what to do with the squirrel. But clearly things
were going fine and Vladimir appeared to be safe. However, after 6 weeks of
Vladimir being at this cabin, those pretty regular updates just abruptly
stopped. Now, at first, Dmitri kind of chocked it up as like, well, you know, I’ve been talking to him for weeks. There didn’t appear to be any, you know,
burgeoning crises or anything going on in his life that might warrant some concern. You know, he’s a capable guy.
You know, maybe cuz it’s the Alaskan winter and Alaskan winters are notoriously dark. There’s not a lot of
sunlight. You know, maybe his his solar powered charger isn’t working. He can’t get enough sunlight, so he can’t charge
his phone. And so maybe that’s what it is. He just can’t contact me cuz his phone doesn’t turn on. Basically, Dmitri
was coming up with these sort of rationes for why he wasn’t hearing from his friend. But as the days went on and
Dimmitri still didn’t hear from Vladimir, he couldn’t help but start to feel like something’s wrong here. And so
finally in early November, when Dimmitri still had not heard from Vladimir, it’s been about a month since those text
messages stopped, Dimmitri decided to get into his plane and fly out over the
area where this cabin was and literally look down and see if his friend was down there in the cabin. Also, this gave
Dmitri the opportunity to put some supplies on the plane in these big buckets that he could literally throw
out down to Vladimir to also restock him. So, Dimmitri is now in his plane
and he’s circling around the area where his cabin is. But this cabin is really small and it’s sort of in this big sea
of trees. I mean, there’s nothing else for miles. And so, it’s pretty difficult with the naked eye to actually look out
and see his own cabin. But Dimmitri had this camera on the underside of his plane that he could maneuver and look
all around. And he had this screen that he could see from the cockpit that was basically an enhanced view of the ground
down below. It was a lot easier to see, for example, his cabin. And so as he was circling, he’s moving the camera around
and then bam, he sees right in the middle of his screen is his cabin. And there doesn’t appear to be anything
wrong with the cabin. You know, it all looks good. There’s smoke coming up out of the chimney. And as he’s circling,
he’s thinking, “Okay, Vladimir clearly is going to hear me. He’s going to come outside and and I’ll see that he’s
okay.” And sure enough, as he’s circling around, Dimmitri sees on his screen that
the front door of the cabin opens and his friend Vladimir walks right outside onto the porch. He puts his hands on his
hips and he looks up and he waves at Dimmitri. And there’s this moment of clear recognition. Like obviously
Vladimir knows this is Dimmitri coming to check on him. And like, you know, Vladimir’s down there kind of
justiculating that, hey, you know, everything’s fine. I’m good. You know, sorry about the phone thing or, you know, Demetri didn’t know what he was
doing, but it just sort of seemed like, okay, there’s recognition here that it’s been a month, but everything is fine.
And so, Dimmitri got down nice and low and continued to circle. And on one of his passes over the cabin, he pulled a
lever, dropped the supplies, those buckets of supplies, they landed down below. And then as Dmitri continued to
circle, he watched on the camera as Vladimir walked up and put his hands on the supplies and waved again to Dmitri,
sort of signaling, you know, thank you for the supplies. And at that point, Dimmitri’s thinking, okay, Vladimir is
just fine. Everything’s good. I can go home. And so that’s what he did. Now, he would have landed and gone and seen
Vladimir up close, but you know, there wasn’t anywhere to land anywhere nearby. Like, this was the closest he could get
to Vladimir. And so, he decided this was enough. So Dimmitri, he turned around and he headed home. But about 2 months
later, on December 23rd, Dimmitri was once again in his plane flying over the
area where his cabin was. Because over these last 2 months, he continued not to get any text messages or any
communication from Vladimir, which, you know, that was bad. He sort of expected that given that Dmitri flew out there
before and they clearly recognized like, hey, you know, are you good? There was sort of a a moment of recognition that
Dmitri is checking in on Vladimir because of the silence. That’s what Dmitri is thinking. Maybe that would
inspire Vladimir to find a way to send out communications now, like let Dmitri
know he’s okay. But he hadn’t for 2 months. And so Demetri is thinking, “Okay, that’s bad.” Also, it’s now
December and the winter in Alaska is fullbore. I mean, tons of snow on the ground. It’s frigid temperatures. It is
truly brutal winter conditions. And then lastly, there had also just been this major earthquake in the area where
Dimmitri’s cabin was. And so all those things combined made Dmitri think, “Okay, I better get out there and just
check on Vladimir again.” And so once again, Dmitri is circling low over the area where his cabin is. He’s got his
camera trained towards the ground, and he’s moving it around as he’s circling. And eventually, he finds his cabin. And
his cabin is clearly in one piece. So, the earthquake did not destroy his cabin, but there’s no sign of Vladimir
anywhere. But then again, like, you know, this is just the first second he’s seen the cabin. He’s only been in the area for a couple of minutes now. Maybe
Vladimir has not heard the plane yet. And so, you know, Dimmitri’s not lost hope. And he continues to circle. And as
he’s circling, he drops these supply buckets that land right out in front of the cabin. And at this point, Dimmitri
is thinking, “Okay, that’s pretty noisy having these supply buckets smash into the ground outside. Certainly now
Vladimir is going to come outside to see what’s going on. I mean, there’s not much else happening. This clearly is
something that would draw his attention. But no, nobody comes out of the cabin. And so at this point, Dimmitri gets as
low as he possibly can. And he’s got his camera trained right at the cabin. And as he’s doing another pass, he realizes
something. There’s no smoke coming out of the chimney. In fact, the top of the chimney is covered with snow, which
means clearly no fire has been lit, at least not recently. And so Dimmitri starts to panic. Like, if anybody was in
that cabin right now without a fire lit, it would be so cold they would likely
freeze to death really quickly. Like, this is a crisis. What’s going on with Vladimir? But Dimmitri couldn’t land
anywhere nearby. Like, there was no way for him to really get down to this cabin. So he had to fly all the way to
the nearest airport and then once he touched down he immediately contacted Alaska state troopers to report his
friend missing because that was the only thing he could think to do. However, after Dmitri made this report, the state
troopers didn’t launch some huge search for Vladimir. And that’s in part because they weren’t actually sure he was
missing. They understood that Dimmitri after flying out over the area had seen snow on the chimney cap and you know
it’s really cold out like nobody could survive without a fire and also you know he flew over the area dropped supplies
and Vladimir didn’t come out of the cabin how could he not hear that stuff they understood that but they’re also
thinking like you know it’s possible Vladimir just might not have been in the area maybe he was out hunting or you
know foraging for food or whatever he was doing and maybe he just wasn’t in the area and that’s why it gave you the
impression that he was missing thing. And so that was one part of it. And the other part is the weather was atrocious
in this part of the world. And so just sending out a search party into the terrible weather out into the wilderness
was really risky. And so the troopers thought it just wasn’t worth doing this big search. And so instead of launching
a big search, the troopers told Dimmitri that what they were going to do instead is just comb through airline records,
local airline records to see if maybe a Vladimir Costeno had, you know, taken
off and flown out of the area. You know, maybe he didn’t tell Dmitri and he just left. Maybe that’s why he’s not there.
And this really frustrated Dimmitri and the rest of Vladimir’s family because they’re all looking at this as a true
emergency and they’re thinking there’s no way he just hopped on a plane and flew out of here without telling anyone.
And so finally, 3 days after filing this missing person report, Dimmitri said, “Enough is enough. I’m going to just
take it into my own hands and go out there myself and see what’s going on with Vladimir.” So he chartered a
private helicopter and he flew out to the cabin. And when he got there, he gets off the helicopter and he just
scans the property and he sees, you know, this little cabin and there’s, you know, firewood outside stacked up with
snow all over it. There’s loads of snow on the cabin and there’s snow kind of drifted up on the front door making it
seem like nobody’s come in or out of this cabin for some time. And you know, Dimmitri, he’s looking around for Vladimir, but there’s no sign of life
anywhere. Dmitri calls out for Vladimir, but there’s no response. And so with some level of trepidation, Dimmitri
begins walking up towards his cabin. And when he gets close enough to the front door, he notices something weird. He
sees that the front door of this cabin has clearly been boarded up from the outside. There’s this big piece of metal
that’s been placed basically blocking the door so nobody could go inside of it. And so Demetri is thinking like, why
would you do this? Unless you were leaving the cabin, but why would Vladimir leave the cabin? Like where is
he? I don’t understand what’s going on here. And so Dimmitri goes up to this piece of metal and pries it off the front door. And then he swings open the
front door and he looks inside and everything is pristine. Vladimir is not
inside, but the cabin looks immaculate. There’s still firewood. There’s still food. There’s no sign of chaos, no sign
of any struggle whatsoever. Like everything looks exactly like it should. And so Dimmitri, he began walking around
inside of this cabin looking for any clue as to what happened to Vladimir.
But there was nothing until he got to the firewood. He noticed that clearly
Vladimir had been labeling his firewood. There was one piece of firewood in particular where the writing was very
clear and what it said was frankincense aroma do not burn. And so Dimmitri is
looking at this piece of wood, you know, that’s been labeled as something that he shouldn’t be burning. And he’s looking at other pieces of wood that also have
some level of labeling on them. And he’s thinking like, what does that mean? And I don’t understand that at all. But that
was it. There was no other clues about where Vladimir had gone. And even the labeling of the wood, like that didn’t
give him anything. And so the impression that Dmitri got after seeing this firsthand was that at some point
Vladimir, for reasons completely unknown, just decided to board up the cabin and disappear into the Alaskan
wilderness with basically no protection, no clear sign he even brought food with him. He just got up and left. Friends
and family and even some authorities believe there is a chance he could still be out there somewhere. In fact, at one
point authorities thought they had found Vladimir in Hawaii. It turned out not to be him. And then again they thought they
found him in Oregon. It turned out not to be him as well. But the case is still open and authorities think, at least
some do, that he might be alive somewhere, but nobody knows where. And so at this point, all the family has to
go off of is the final image of Vladimir, which was taken from inside of Dimmitri’s plane when he did that first
fly over. And he saw Vladimir come out on the porch. That is the final image of Vladimir that we know of. We don’t know
what happened after this image. All we know is, you know, at some point he began labeling his firewood, you know,
writing down which aroma the wood makes, and then he boarded his place up and he left. But where he went next is still a
mystery.
In case you haven’t heard yet, our newest graphic novel, Mr. Ballin Presents Where Nightmares Live, is
available for pre-order right now. It contains another nine heartstoppping, strange, dark, and mysterious stories,
all based on real events. This was a passion project. It took a lot of time, a lot of people involved from the
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The book comes out on September 30th, but again, you can pre-order your copy at book.bballinsstudios.com
or you can click the link in the description below. There are a limited number of hands- copies available, but
those are going to sell out very quickly. So, please pre-order today because remember, your nightmares are
waiting. [Music]
At 700 p.m. on October 21st, 1978, a 20-year-old pilot named Frederick
Valentic flew his small plane over a body of water just south of Australia called the Bass Strait. He just taken
off from Melbourne, Australia, and his flight plan was to go 60 mi south to an island called King Island. and he was
really excited about this flight. Not so much about where he was going, but because this represented the first time
he’d actually be flying by himself at night. So Frederick had always dreamed of becoming a pilot. But the journey to
actually becoming one had been really difficult. He had applied twice actually to the Royal Australian Air Force, but
unfortunately he could not meet their requirements. And then also he had tried to become a commercial airline pilot,
but he had failed their tests. But luckily for Frederick, his father had a ton of money, and he ultimately swooped
in and funded Frederick to take some private lessons. And through that, he was able to ultimately pass the tests
and get his pilot’s license. And so, as Frederick coasted along, looking down below at the the lights of Melbourne
disappearing behind him, he felt like he was on top of the world. He was doing the one thing he had always dreamed of,
and he was so happy. And it was so cool to be doing it at night by himself. And so he was just looking out at the sights
and looking ahead at the Bass Strait, which is this huge dark expanse of water. And it was like everything was
right in the world. He was doing exactly what he wanted to do. However, only a few minutes into this flight at 7:06
p.m., something strange happened. As Frederick was flying along, he suddenly became aware of a light coming from
somewhere behind him. Remember, it’s nighttime, so it’s totally dark where he is. And he’s flying over a body of
water. So, he’s kind of like in this void of darkness. And so, any lights are really going to illuminate the cockpit.
And so, he sees this light. He turns around and maybe 3 or 4,000 ft behind him, he sees what looks like a plane.
That is the source of the light. And right away, Frederick’s thinking that is both surprising and also potentially
very problematic because he knew from his training that that was far too close to be to another plane. And so the only
explanation was either that pilot was off course or Frederick was off course.
And Frederick’s thinking, you know, if I’m off course here and I’m flying where I shouldn’t be, I’m going to get in trouble with air traffic control and I
might lose my pilot’s license. Like the one thing I covet, I might lose it. And so initially, Frederick really didn’t
know what to do. He was sort of panicking and just kind of frozen like I don’t even know what I’m supposed to do right now. And as this was happening,
Frederick kept instinctively looking back at this light, trying to figure out what this plane was doing. And every
time he would turn around over the course of just a few seconds, it was very obvious that this light, this other
plane was gaining on him. And so Frederick starts to worry like this is not just about maybe getting in trouble
or not. This plane might crash into me. Look how fast they’re going. Like what do I do? And so Frederick at this point,
he double checked that he was on course and based on his instruments and what he had been doing, he really felt like he
was on course here. And he just thinks, you know what, the best thing I can do here is just call air traffic control.
So he grabs the radio and he gets a hold of Melbourne air traffic control and he says, “Hey, there’s this this plane that
is like right behind me. They’re gaining on me. I’m worried they’re going to crash into me. Do I need to deviate?
Like what’s going on here?” And the air traffic controller very calmly says, “Okay, let me check the radar. let me
check the schedules. And so Frederick, the whole time he’s waiting for a response. He’s looking over his shoulder and still this light is gaining on him.
It’s getting closer and closer. And then finally the controller gets back on the radio and they tell Frederick there is
no other aircraft anywhere near you. Like there’s nothing over the Bass Strait. You are completely alone. But
Frederick couldn’t believe this because by now the light, the aircraft that was right behind him has gotten right behind
his. It’s basically right on his tail. And Frederick is now completely panicked and he’s getting ready to try to explain
like, “No, wait a minute. Like, there’s got to be a better explanation here. There’s something right here.” But at
that very moment, it becomes very clear to Frederick that this is not some ordinary aircraft because it began doing
something when it got right up behind his aircraft that no normal aircraft could do. This light suddenly began
orbiting Frederick’s aircraft. Frederick is traveling forward. And this this ball
of light is basically whipping around his aircraft as fast as can be. He can barely make it out. He’s starting to
panic. And at the same time, Frederick begins to hear the sound of his engine starting to fail. And there was no
reason for it. His craft was fine when he took off, but now it’s clearly sputtering and failing. And so all
Frederick could do in this totally intense, panicked moment is just grab the radio and begin talking to air
traffic control about what he was seeing. The person Frederick actually spoke to on the ground in this moment
was an air traffic controller in Melbourne named Steve Roby. And Frederick would come off to Steve like
he was totally crazy and unhinged. And Steve would say that he couldn’t really understand what he was talking about.
But at some point, Frederick clearly began talking about some sort of craft
orbiting his own and that his engine was starting to fail and he didn’t know what was going to happen and he couldn’t make
an emergency landing. He was overwater. And then suddenly Steve remembers hearing this grinding metallic sound
come over the radio that basically washed out whatever Frederick was saying. And then it just goes deadly
silent. And after that, Frederick disappeared. They searched the area where they knew he was before he
disappeared. But they never found his plane. There was no sign of a crash. He never landed at King Island or went back
to Melbourne. He was just gone. All they have is that final recording of him
describing something orbiting him, then this grinding metallic sound, and then silence. And recently, that audio
recording was made public. Now, before I actually play a clip from that audio,
here is the official explanation for what happened to Frederick. As he was flying over the Bass Straight, it was so
dark and there were no lights really anywhere that at some point, you know, because he’s an inexperienced pilot, I
suppose, he flipped his plane upside down without realizing it. And the light that he was seeing was actually just a
reflection off the water below of his own plane. And eventually from flying upside down, his engine began to fail
and he crashed into the bass straight. However, not everybody believes this explanation because one, it seems sort
of preposterous to imagine that Frederick would not have realized he had flipped the plane upside down and was
flying for so long inverted. Like, how could you not notice that? And two, this would not be the first time that
somebody reported unexplained phenomena over the Bass Straight. In fact, over the years leading up to this incident
with Frederick, there had been so many reports of UFOs flying over the Bass
Strait and also unexplained disappearances that they’ve dubbed the Bass Strait the Bass Strait Triangle
after the Bermuda Triangle. Basically, it’s a part of the world where a disproportionate number of unexplained
phenomena occur. And so, to this day, Frederick’s disappearance remains a mystery. All we have is his final call
for help.
Dela Sierra Juliet. What type of aircraft is it?
bus 90.
Okay, that was deleted from the press accounts for some reason. Time
450. Delta Sierra Juliet and confirm you
cannot identify the aircraft. Delta Sierra Juliet. Roger. Standby.
Can you describe the uh aircraft? the last
one right now. Melvin, tell us here Juliet. Roger. How large
would the would the object be?
doing right now is anything on top of the
green line
Julia.
Delta Sierra Juliet, confirm the aircraft just vanished.
Delta Sierra Juliet, is the aircraft still with you?
23 24 Julia. Roger. What are your intentions?
My goal that aircraft is properly again.
It’s not an aircraft.