Today, I'm going to tell three very strange disappearance stories, and in one of them, I'm even going to play some audio that was recently made public that's very unsettling. So you want to make sure you stick around for that. But before we get into today's stories, if you're a fan of the Strange, Dark, and Mysterious Delivered in Story format, then you've come to the right place, because that's all we do and we upload once a week. So, if that's of interest to you, please sneak into the Like Button's house and replace
all of their shoelaces with slightly shorter ones. Also, please subscribe to our channel and turn on all notifications so you don't miss any of our weekly uploads. of New Taipei City, which is a major city in northern Taiwan. Zhang 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 Zhang 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 Yan-chui, 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 have 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 seven. 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 Zhang is just waiting for these doors to open shut and go up one more floor. However, when the doors opened on floor six, Zhang 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,
Zhang'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 Zhang'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, Zhang'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 call the building, we'll get you some help. Like, stay calm, you're gonna be okay. But her dad just continued rambling and he was totally incoherent. And eventually, you know, and then she immediately called her apartment building's
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 get spun up into action to go save her dad,
Zhang's daughter left work, hopped in her car, and began rushing home. It would take Zhang's daughter about 40 minutes to get back to her apartment. By the time she got there, she fully expected her dad would be safely out of the elevator. 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 Zhang'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 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 Zhang'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 Zhang'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 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 Zhang 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, Chen Yan Chui, the woman who was on that poster that Jong 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 Zhang
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 five days of this, when the owner of this residence didn't come home because they were on vacation, she eventually died because she didn't have food or water or anything. She was just standing there for five days. And so she dies.
And then a couple of days later, Zhang 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 mortis 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 Zhang 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 Zhang, 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 Zhang 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. On the morning of August 18th, 2018, a 41-year-old man named Vladimir Kostenko stepped out of a taxi onto a desolate road in the middle of the Alaskan wilderness, On May 18th, 2018, a 41-year-old man named Vladimir Kostenko 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 five pounds 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 wanna do this? And Vladimir just smiled and nodded and said, yep, I'm gonna 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 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 Kudrin, and he owned this small cabin way out in the middle of the Alaskan wilderness. Now, Dmitri 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.
Three months later, on November 3rd of 2018, Dimitri, Vladimir's friend who owned this And Dimitri was feeling very concerned. So obviously, Dimitri suggested Vladimir go out and use this cabin, and so he was totally open to the idea of it. But Dmitri 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 Dmitry's like, that's a bad plan.
But he just could not convince Vladimir to change his mind. And so ultimately, Dmitry 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 Dmitry. 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 pesky squirrel that kept coming in and stealing his foods. 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 six weeks of Vladimir being at this cabin, those pretty regular updates just abruptly stopped. Now, at first, Dmitri kind of chalked 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 because 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 because his phone doesn't turn on. Basically, Dmitry was coming up with these sort of rationales for why he wasn't hearing from his friend. But as the days went on and Dmitry 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 Dmitri still had not heard from Vladimir, it's been about a month since those text messages stopped, Dmitri 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, Dimitri 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 Dimitri had this camera on the underside of his plane that he could maneuver and look all around, and he had the 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 gonna hear me.
He puts his hands on his hips, and he looks up, and he waves at Dimitri. And there's this moment of clear recognition, like obviously Vladimir knows this is Dimitri coming to check on him, and like, you know, Vladimir's down there kind of gesticulating that, hey, you know, everything's fine, I'm good, you know, sorry about the phone thing, or, you know, Dmitry 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 Dmitry got down nice and low and continued to circle, he watched on the camera as Vladimir walked up and put his hands on the supplies and waved again to Dmitry, sort of signaling, you know, thank you for the supplies. And at that point, Dmitry'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 Dmitry, he turned around and he headed home.
But about two months later, on December 23rd, Dmitry was once again in his plane flying over the area where his cabin was. Because over these last two 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 Dmitry flew out there before and they clearly recognized
like, hey, you know, are you good? There was sort of a moment of recognition that Dmitry's checking in on Vladimir because of the silence. That's what Dmitry's thinking, maybe that would inspire Vladimir to find a way to send out communications now, like let Dmitry know he's okay.
But he hadn't for two months. And so Dmitry's thinking, okay, that's bad. Also, it's now December, and the winter in Alaska is full bore. 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 Dmitry's cabin was. And so all those things combined made Dmitry think, okay, I better get out there and just check on Vladimir again. And so once again, Dmitry 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, Dmitry'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, Dmitry's thinking, okay, that's pretty noisy, having these supply buckets smash into the ground outside. Certainly now Vladimir is gonna 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, Dmitry 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, Dmitri 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 Dmitry 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 Dmitry 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 Dmitry, after flying out over the area, had seen snow on the chimney cap, and it's really cold out, nobody could survive without a fire. And also, 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. 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 Dmitry that what they were
going to do instead is just comb through airline records, local airline records, to see if maybe a Vladimir Kostenko had, you know, taken off and flown out of the area. You know, maybe he didn't tell Dmitry and he just left. Maybe that's why he's not there. And this really frustrated Dmitry 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, three days after filing this missing person report, Dimitri 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.
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, Dmitri, 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, Dmitri 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's 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, Demetri 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 Dmitri, 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 Dmitri's 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? 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 Dmitry 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 Dmitry's plane when he did that first flyover 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. In case you haven't heard yet, our newest graphic novel, Mr. Bollin Presents, Where
Nightmares Live, is available for pre-order right now. It contains another nine heart-stopping, 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 artwork to the storytelling. I mean, this is a beautiful piece to add to your collection, so you've got to check it
out. The book comes out on September 30th, but again, you can pre-order your copy at book.ballinstudios.com, or you can click the link in the description below. There are a limited number of hand-signed copies available, but those are gonna sell out very quickly. So please pre-order today, At 7 p.m. on October 21st, 1978, a 20-year-old pilot named Frederick Falintik flew his small plane over a body of water
just south of Australia called the Bass Strait. He'd just taken off from Melbourne, Australia, and his flight plan was to go 60 miles 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 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 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 7.06pm, 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 feet 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 cup it, 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 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 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 Robey. 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 gonna happen, and he couldn't make an emergency landing, he was over water. 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's the official explanation for what happened to Frederick. As he was flying over the Bass Strait, 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 Strait. 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 Strait. 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.
This is the 6-7-6-5.
90-84-6-5-4-8.
Melbourne, this is 5-4-4-4-8.
4-2-3-2-1.
Melbourne, this is Harry Hill the press accounts for some reason. Delta Sierra Juliet, and confirm, you cannot identify the aircraft. Roger. Delta Sierra Juliet, roger. Standby.
Delta Sierra Juliet, is that an aircraft? Can you describe the aircraft? Delta Sierra Juliet, engine climb balance is to the right of the sky. I'm going to fly more today, get some of that speed. We're pulling in right now, Melvin.
Delta Sierra Juliet, roger. How large would the object be?
It's a little bit thick, but it's a decent bike, it's nice and thick. What I'm doing right now is orbiting and I think it's just orbiting on top of the aircraft. It's green line and it's going up the belly side. It's going down into the air side.
Delta Sierra Juliet.
Delta Sierra Juliet, go ahead. It's just going up the belly side. Well, I'm going to go watch my aircraft up there. Is there a person there confirm the aircraft just vanished. Delta Sierra Juliet, is the aircraft still with you? Delta Sierra Juliet, isger. What are your intentions? I'm just to go to King Island, Melbourne, that's the current route, I'm just following
a foot by the air gate. That's a pilot in the aircraft. He's holding a football game. And he's holding an extended aircraft. That's a pilot.
Let me know what you thought of today's episode in the comments. And remember, we have hundreds of videos for you to binge right now. But if you're looking for a recommendation from me of that one video that's worth your time, well, it's this one right here time, well, it's this one right here So give it a watch. All right until next time. See ya
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