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English translation of Terauchi statement (Meeting the Future)

FAA via National Archives / The Black Vault · 14 pages · text from the file's own layer

This is an English translation of Captain Kenju Terauchi's personal statement about the November 17, 1986 sighting by Japan Air Lines Flight 1628 over Alaska. Sayoko Mimoto of the FAA Alaskan Region translated it, and the FAA received it on January 2, 1987. Terauchi describes two lights pacing the Boeing 747 cargo jet, square spaceships stopping in front of the aircraft, a green object on the plane's weather radar, and a gigantic mothership seen near Fairbanks. He says the encounter lasted about 50 minutes and ended north of Talkeetna.

"Page 14"
It was too slow to circle in the auto-pilot mode; therefore,
we switched to the manual mode and set to turn right on a 30
de1rees bank. We looked to our right forward but did not see any
light. We were relieved, thinking the object may have left us
and returned to the level flight but when we checked to our rear
the object was still there in exactly the same place. "Anchorage
Center, This is JL 1628. The object follows us in formation. We
request a change in altitude, 3,100 feet, yes, 3,100 feet."
"This is the Anchorage Center, JL 1628, ascend to 3,100 feet.
The consumption of fuel during this flight was almost as
expected but there was only 3,800 pounds left and as such was not
enough for extra flying for running around. We have got to
arrive at Anchorage. "Anchorage Center, this is JL 1628. We
request permission for the direct fliaht to Talkeetna." "JL1628,
this is the Anchorage Center, we authorize the direct flight to
Talkeetna. ·· We checked behind us again. The ship was in
formation and ascending with us. We wondered and feared as to
their purpose. "JL 1628, this is the Anchorage Center. Would you
like to request scramble for confirmation?" "The Anchorage
Center, this is JL 1628. We would not request scramble." We
turned the offer down quickly.
[Personal statement concerning JAL Flight 1628 sighting of
unidentified air traffic, Nov. 17, 1986. Written by Capt.
Kenju Terauchi; translated by Sayoko Mimoto, F,AA Alaskan
Region, Airway Facilities Division. Received by FAA 1/2/87]

Cases discussed

  • The Mantell UFO Incident 1948
    U.S. military fighter called the mustang that had flown up high for a confirmation and a tragedy

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Document, cited by the archive. The PDF is mirrored here; the original link is above. 14 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.