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Klass and Haines inquiries and FAA responses

FAA via National Archives / The Black Vault · 41 pages · text from the file's own layer

This FAA file, released through The Black Vault, collects correspondence and memos about the Japan Air Lines flight 1628 UFO report over Alaska on November 17, 1986. It includes Philip J. Klass's 1987 Skeptical Inquirer article, which attributes the sighting to Jupiter, Mars and moonlit ice clouds, and FAA Alaskan Region public affairs memos on the premature release of investigation material. It also contains Richard F. Haines's request for the case file and Paul Steucke's reply explaining the radar returns as uncorrelated targets.

I s poke to Mr. Klass on February 18 , 1987, re garding this
sub ject and he informed me that he had "a chance to see a
transcript, a certified transcript" of the voice
transcriptions between the fli gh t crew and the controllers
at t he Anchorage Air Route Traffic Com:,rol Center. When I
asked hi m who provided him that opportuni ty he said " a good
c o re spo n den ~ never reveals his sources, I'm sure you
unde r stand that. " This conversation was on a speaker
tel ephone and was overheard by several people in our office.
On February 20, 1987, I was called by Mr . Bruce Maccabee,
Naval Sur face Weapons Center, Silver Spring, Maryl and,
requestin g the status of the JAL1 628 investigation and the
release of ma t erials. He also informed me that he "and
several other people had been invited by Mr . John Callahan
(F A.A.- AAT- 63 ) to see t he (UFO Air Traffic) material ." Thi s
occurred, he thought in late Januar y, 1987 . He said the
materi al i,.;as "thick , contained the trans cript, col or photos
of t he radar screen, interview of Captain Terauchi ,
cont roller statements, some r.iaps and other material ." He

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Document, cited by the archive. The PDF is mirrored here; the original link is above. 41 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.