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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.
“Japan Air Lines Flight 1628”2 pages
3 disappear--as reported by the pilot. When the pilot searched the skies~ for the UFO and spotted the very bright Jupiter, further to the left of the original "UFOs," he could easily conclude it was the same UFO, even though the copilot and flight engineer would later tell the FAA that it looked distinctly different. 9. During the initial sighting, the 747's weather radar detected and displayed a "target" slightly to the left a.'nd at a distance of about eight miles--in roughly the location that the amber-white lights were visible • . The flight engineer described this airbotne radar target as "not a dot, but stream-like." And his description is confirmed by a sketch drawn by the pilot for the FAA shortly after JAL landed at Anchorage. · The 747's w~ather radar is equipped with a color display to alert the pilot to the strength of the radar echo, with the strongest -echoes shown in red and the weakest in green. All three crew members agree that the "UFO" stream-like blip was green--which would be appropriate for an echo from thin clouds of ice crystals •. The echo from a giant craft only eight miles distant would certainly be very strong and would have been displayed in red. 10. Claims made by some UFOlogists that the U.S. Government tries to withhold or cover-up information about UFOs and UFO sightings is denied by the action of the FAA in making available, at modest cost, all data in its possession involving the Nov. 17, 1986, JAL "UFO" incident. 11. The FAA even included in its data pack a brief note by one of its officials which says: "Through a confidential source at Japan Airlines, it was stated to me that this was not the first sighting of an unidentified aircraft by Capt. Terauchi." Persons interested in obtaining some or all elements of the FAA data pack can contact: Paul Steucke, Public Affairs Officer FAA Alaskan Region 701 "C" St., Box 14 Anchorage, Alaska 99513 · (907) 271-5296 ------------------------------------------------------------- Philip J. Klass, Chairman CSICOP UFO Subcommittee 404 "N" St. Southwest Washington D.C. 20024 (202) 554-5901 March 27, 1987
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.