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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.
•r Controversy JANUARY 26.1987 0. weekly VOL 27. NO. 4 At Anchorage airport Terauchl demonstrates how agiant object maneuvered tofly in formation with his plane. THROUGH THE ALASKAN DARKNESS KENJU TERAUCHI, A 747 PILOT, IS PURSUED BY A UFO—OR SO HE CLAIMS MKs the Japan Air Lines 747 cargo jet winged through the night skies over northern Alaska last Nov. 17 there was no hint of anything out of the ordinary. For the three-man cockpit crew of flight 1628, the leg from Reykjavik to Anchorage was a routine milk run, though the hold was brimming with cases of Beaujolais for the Japanese market. Then around 6 p.m., with the plane cruising smoothly at 35,000 feet,, Capt. Kenju Terauchl, 47, sighted "two columns of light" piercing the darkness about a mile ahead and some 30 de grees to his left. "I thought it might be a military aircraft," he recalls, "so 1ra dioed Anchorage flight control to ask, 'Is there another plane near here?' An chorage replied, 'The only traffic is you.'" As for the pilot's account of the bi zarre events that followed, Steven Spielbergcouldhardly have scripted it better. "Suddenly the lights came to within 500to 1,000 feet of the plane," says Terauchl, whosaw "two dark cyl inders with row after row of spinning amber lights, one row spinning in one direction, the next In the opposite." These were no ordinary lights—"They were incredibly bright but cast no shadow," he insists. "I was sure it wasn't another plane; it moved so quickly that I realized it was not some thing human but had to do with very high technology, very high intelligence. Ithought It might be a UFO." AJAL flier with 19 years experience, Terauchl was astonished at the spec tacle, yet says he felt no fear. The twin cylinders "flew in formation, and I real- ^ ized they had better control of their craft than 1did, so there was no fear of collision." He watched mesmerized for three to five minutes as the UFO sped ahead and disappeared. In its place the pilot saw two white, fluorescent- likelights perhaps eight miles away. He flipped on his weather radar and got a faint blipon his screen. Gradually Terauchi's 747 overtook the apparition and, against the glow of Fairbanks* city lights far below, he glimpsed a star tling silhouette—a giant ball "the size of two aircraft carriers" with protrud ing lights and a light band through the middle. Since Anchorage air controllers had registered a radar targefhear flight ' 1628, they called for a backup radar check from the regional military con trol center. The U.S. Air Force control lers reported seeing a blip similar to Terauchi's, but called back a minute later to say the signal was gone. Te rauchl nevertheless received permis sion to make any course changes "needed to avoid the traffic." As the 747 flew a 360-degree turn, says Te rauchl, the UFO "followedalong In the same beautiful formation." Finally, at 6:53, allsightings ceased, and flight 1628 proceeded to land in Anchorage without further Incident. Officials from the Federal Aviation Administration's Anchorage office and JAL promptly launched an Investiga tion. Far from providing a reassuring CONTINUED
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