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News clippings

FAA via National Archives / The Black Vault · 51 pages · text from the file's own layer

This FAA file, released through the National Archives and The Black Vault, collects 1987 newspaper clippings about Japan Air Lines Flight 1628. Capt. Kenju Terauchi reported that lights and a huge walnut-shaped object followed his 747 cargo jet over Alaska on November 17, 1986. The articles quote FAA spokesman Paul Steucke saying the radar returns were a split image and military clutter, and report Philip Klass's explanation that Terauchi saw Jupiter and Mars. Terauchi's second sighting in January was attributed to village lights reflecting off ice crystals.

  • p. 8 …fe it ' • an inquiry into a Japan Air Lines pilot's reportthat a UFO followed his…
  • p. 15 …sighted by the crew of a Japan Air Lines Oargo jet last November aren't the…
  • p. 16 …Terauchi, a veteran pilot ferrying JAL Flight 1628 from Iceland to Japan, told United Press International…
  • p. 18 …wa vering ligihs that dogged a Japan Air Lines cargo^jet across Alaska's night sky…
  • p. 28 …Since Anchorage air controllers had registered a radar targefhear flight ' 1628, they called for a backup…
  • p. 44 …CaptainKenju'Terauchi's Japan Air Lines OAL) Boeing 747 cargo jet. flying across the Arctic Circle…
  • p. 51 …sighted by the crew of a Japan Air Lines cargo jet last November aren't the…
».A'* )£ f
JIT pOM Ktfiiu TmkM'*
•k«t«h •!!•*• vtMrc Hm UPO
E!^tta fiM ^ptmoi I mStt
(n frMrt •# fib plwt.
Driver aims
at ferry but
misses boat
Widow Jessica Rawlings
missed the boat and nar
rowly avoided a disaster
when she drove her car
down a ferry slip — and
straight into the water.
The 74-yearoId Poole, En
gland. woman was rescu^ by
courageous bystanders who
wadei^lnto the icy water in 60
fids to pull her from
[itlrely myown fault."
jie flustered oldster.
"I thought the ferry was
there, but when 1 drove down
the ramp it wasn't The next
thing 1 knew I was in the
water."
WEEKLY WORLD NEWS
Did the FAA have it on radar?
5 .
SiSn"'-
—wbUSSKT-
y
•r DICX DONOVAN
The U.S. government at first con
firmed, then mysteriously denied that
a huge UFO, described as bigger than
two aircraft carriers, was tracked on
radar as it played a bizarre cat-and-
mouse game — with a Boeing 747 jet!
FAA air traffic controllers bad flatly
stated they had tracked the gigantic spacecraft
for more than 32 minutes as it followed a
Japan Air Lines cargo flight bound for An
chorage, Alaska.
Then, in s surprise offi
cial flip-flop, an agency
spokesman said the eerie
blip that zipped helter-
skelter across the radar
scope was merely a dupli
cate image of the 747.
Thit bit of mumbo Jumbo,-
however, flies in the face of
eyewitness accounts of the jet's
three-man crew that had been
kept secret for six weeks —
until a crewmember leaked the
story to the press.
According to a vivid and de
tailed account of the Incident
by veteran JAL pilot Kenju
Terauchi, his 747 was flying In
clear skies at 35,000 feet and
cruising at 525 knots when
three walnut-shaped UFOs, the
huge one and two smaller ones,
streaked out of the heavens.
"We could all see the UFOs
very clearly," the 47-year-old
pilot said. "One was very large
... two times bigger than an air
craft carrier.It barfed our747.
"The UFOs were flying par
allel and then suddenly aiH
proached very close. They
moved with amazing speed."
GIGANTIC UFO
THAT SHOCKED
^HE WORLD!
0
6
Ik
1
V
ttlNha . Vn
•wr
JUMIO iet wee dwarfed by huge wafiurt shaped UFO. Thb
sketch by piet TaraucM sbawe the relotbe sbea ef the ipecw
ooft and hb 747. The ptana b the tiny Mackshape at right.
earth.
(hsedtminl^ off'Alaska
flight control reports, the
UFOs dogged the 747 for at
least S2 minutes.
Terauchi. however, said the
ships followed him for 400
miles.
Terauchi, irfiose flying ca-
7iL0rS sketch
radw shews hei
af plene's
r UFO ap-
reer spans 29 years, said be
and his crew tried to escape
the UFOs by following FAA
instructions to descend 4.000
feet and make several evasive
maneuvers.
But the 747 Jet was no
match for the maneuvering
ability of the spacecraft.
"They were itill following
us," Terauchi said, and FAA
radar at that tirag confirmed
that at least one of the UFOs
remained nearby.
FAA investigators ques
tioned the 747*8 crew in An
chorage and said they are
"normal, rational, profession
al" people with no drug or al
cohol problems.
cargo of wine bound for Tokyo
from Paris when the UFOs ap
peared eight miles ahead.
Terauchi radioed that the
lights he saw were yellow,
amber and green, but not red,
which is the international
color for aircraft beacons.
Paul Steucke. the FAA
spokesman in Anchorage, said
his agency is continuing its in
vestigation Into the incident
and that radar tapes and the
recorded radio messages are
being sent to Washington.
But Terauchi said his only
conclusion is that the three
UFOs he saw on that Novem
ber 17 flight were not from
earth.

About this file

Document, cited by the archive. The PDF is mirrored here; the original link is above. 51 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.