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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.
St ev e Hayes P ublic Affairs Office FAA - Headquarters Washington, D. C. Dear N.ir. Hayes: 325 Langton Avenue Los Altos, CA 94022 February 16, 1987 Before I explain my reason for writing to you let me explain that I am a full t ime NASA scientist (now in management) at Ames R.esearch Center and have worked with the FAA on several projects including head-up display (Flight Standards, Hqs. ). I am also a rr;errber of the International Society of Air Safety Investigators and have served on an FAA investigation (for the NTSB) of the China airlines (flt. 007) son,e time ago. "}./iy ongoing personal hobby is that of uniden- t ified aerial phenomena; my specialty is that of sightings by pilots. My files now number over 3, 000 cases. I believe that a colleague af mine, Dr. Bruce :N.iaccabee spoke with you recently concerning the Japan Airlines flight 1628 inc ident of 17 November 1986 over Alaska. He filled Ire in on a number of r adar track details which are very useful in my flight path reconstruction. He also indicated that the FAA may release the voice tape transcript of that incident and the full file. I am now writing to obtain a copy of this voice transcript for my further study and the entire case file. Of course I will be glad to pay for all copying charges. While I can imagine that you would rather just get on with your other work and forget this incident, I imagine that you would be interested in reading my case report when it is finished. Of course I will be pleased to send you a copy. Thanks for anything you may be willing to share with me. On another related matter, I understand that c e ntral Alaska experienced another strange sighting by an Air Force crew and the crew of an Alaskan A irlines com- mercial flight in January or early February 1987. What do you know about this l ater incident? A colleage at Stanford University is helping to obtain satellite c ove rage for the November 17, 1986 incident and I would like to save time and ex- pens e by also ordering it for the second incident if possible. Another professional rr,eteo r olog ist is doing a weather reconstruction so I can recalrulate the JAL flight path, etc. I spent about 3 hours by phone with Capt. Terauchi and he was ve ry cooperative, considering my long list of technical quest ions. Apparently he is now back in Tokyo and doesn 1t want to talk anyn,ore, which I can fully understand. :N1y phone has also been very busy on th is matter. Finally, does the FAA plan to keep the r adar t ape of the November 17th incident? How about the nore recent inc ident '? I plan to be i n \fla shington on NASA bus iness in l'llarch or early April and would very much like to come by to see it myself, just to clear up some unresolved questions. Thanks for your consideration of my questions and requests. I will look fo r ward to hearing from you. ~~Richard F. Haines, Ph.D. R esea rch Cons ultant
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.