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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.

ACTION: Releas e of Incident
Inf ormat ion, JAL1628
PUBLIC AFFAI RS OFFICER, AAL-5
HARVEY B. SAFEER , ATS-1
Manager, Poiicy and Recommendation Branch
FAA, Washingt on , D.C.
March 11 , 1987
A Mr . Phillip Klass, in a nationwide wire service news story
dat ed January 30, 1987, has stated that he reviewed a
complete copy of t he transcript for the above fli ght, even
t hough the investigation of this incident had not been
completed and none of the information had been released to
the public or media .
The pr emature and unauthorized viewing and r elease of this
material wit h its subsequent publishing pl aced the agency in
t he embar r assing pos ition of having released information
whic h was being withhel d from hundred s of ot her news media
cor respondents . This t ype of re l ease pl aces t he agenc ies
integri t y i n quest i on and makes it extremely awkward fo r t he
public affa i rs office to respond t o those corr espondents who
were den i ed t he mater i al .
A

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