News clippings

THURSDAX JANUARY 29,1987 NEWVORK CITY TRIBUNE
SCIENCE
J. ANTONIO HtlNEEUS
Strange Sighting Over Alaska Revives UFO Debate
The media's recent interest in a UFO incident in Alaska
has shown that "flyingsaucers" are stillalive and kicking.
Despite four decades of official ridicule and academic
indifference, it lakes just one new good case to bring
back again for public appraisal the old UFO question.
CaptainKenju'Terauchi's Japan Air Lines OAL) Boeing
747 cargo jet. flying across the Arctic Circle between
Reykjavik, Iceland, and Tokyo, provided just that case.
The incident occurred on the evening of November
17, 1986, yet it wasn't until New Year's that the story
was leaked to the press. The Federal AviationAdminis
tration (FAA) and the U.S. Air Force acknowledged
initially that the UFOhadbeen detected bygroundradar
inPai^anks, Alaska. Onjanuary 4, FAAspokesmanPaul
Sieucke admitted the agency was conducting a formal
inquiryof the event and hadinterviewdthe JALcrew for
a second time.
The "official investigation" of the radar tapes later
labeled it an "arti^ct," which in radar jargon means a
"ghost," in this case the 747's "doubleimage."Nonethe
less, it was — in the late Dr.J. Allen Kynek's cbssifica-
tion — a "radar/visual" case. Captain "rerauchi insisted
he saw "a very big" object, appronmately "two times
bigger than an aircraft carrier," as well as two smaller
object3whichpacedhisplanefor400mi]es duringat least
half anhour. Thecopilot and flight engineer also saw the
UFO li^ts. •
Evasive Action
JAL Flight 1628 was flying enroute to Japan on a
routine cargo haul between Iceland and Anchorage. The
747 was cruising normally at 525 knots at 35,000 feet
when around 6 p.m., Terauchi sighted "two columns of
light"about a mileaheadand some 30 degrees to hislefL
The pilot radioed the control tower at Anchorage to
check if there was any other air traffic. Anchorage
responded in the negative. "Suddenlythe lightscame to
within500 to 1,000 feet of the plane," said Terauchi He
described the lights as "two dark cylinders with row after
row of spinning amber lights" which cast no shadows.
"I was sure it wasn't another plane," he said later in
an interview. "It moved so quickly that I realized it was
not something human but had to do with very high
technology, very high intelligence." Stranger things con
tinued to happea A blip was detected on the 747*3
weatlier radar, and ihecylinders "fluw In formation" with
the jet. At this point, FAAspokesman Stuucke explained
later, "his (Terauchi) main concern was trying to deter
mine whether he was overtaking another aircraft."
The captain then requested from ground authorities
permission to take evasive action, whichgranted It and
proceeded to {pvehiminstructions. The Boeing dropped
4,000 feet and made several turns, but the lights "were
still following us," said Terauchi.
Near Fairbanks, Terauchi glimpsed a huge round
object, about "the size of two aircraft carriers." He later
speculated it was a "mothership" of possible extrater
restrial ori)^ Copilot Tamefuji and flight en^^er
Tsukuda, however, did not see the large UFO, although
they did see unusual lights pacing the plane. The lights
finally vanished at 6:53 p.m., and flight 1628 landed in
Anchorage without further incident.
FAA officials interviewed the crew, releasing a
statement to the effect that they were "normal profes
sional, rational, (and had) no dru^ or alcohol
involvement" When the story was finallyleaked, both
the Air Force and the FAA admitted that ground radar
blips had been detected around the time of the JAL
sibling. TTie Air Force soon dismissed them as "elec
tronic clutter." The FAA and the military use the same
long-range radar in Fairbanks, but the FAA also uses a
sophisticated computer system to remove clutter from
radar images. FAAground records indicated that some
thing stayed close to the JAL 747 for 32 minutes. This
radar evidence was also dismissed by the FAA as the
plane's"double image."
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DETAILED SKETCHES bjJALpihtCapL Kenju Teraudii showtylindriail limits a/id a hugemothenh^ th^
dwatfedhis Boeing 747.
What Pilot Saw was Really Jupitei; Says Prober
A Japan Air Lines pflot who claimed to have seen an
unidentified flying object alongride his airplane last
Novemberwas actually seeing an unusually bright image
of the planet Jupiter and possibly Mars, an investigator
said Thesday in a dispatch by the Associated Press.
PhilipJ. Klass told AP that astronomicalcalculations
show that on Nov. 17, when the pilot claimed to have
seen the UFO, Jupiter was'extremely bright and was
visible precisely where the pilot reported that he saw
the UFO. Mars wasjust belowand to the right ofJupiter,
and mayexplainthe pilot's initialreport that he saw two
lights, Klass said.
Klass, an editor with the magazineAwfum Week and
Space Technology and a longtime investigator of claimed
UFO sightings, was quoted as saying the pilot's claims
that the object followed him as he made a 36Q-degree
turn are contradicted by what he told (lightcontrollers
at the time.
John Leyden,' a spokesman for the Federal Aviation
Administration in Washingtoa quoted froma summary
of conversations between pilot and ground control
lers inwhich thepilot report losing siidu oftheobject
after completing his turn.
The object reappeared a few moments later, accord
ingto the FAA summaryquoted by Lcydem
The pilot, Capt. Kenjyu Terauchi, was over Alaska
enroute from Europe, via Iceland, to Tokyo when he
claimsto have sifted the object.
PaulSteucke, a spokesmanfor the FAA inAnchorage,
said that Terauchi told FAA officials in an interview that
the object stayed with him as he turned.
Stcucke sold the FAA wouldbe releasing the results
of its own investigationin mid-February.
Accordmg to Klass, who reviewed a completecopy
o( the transcript, the pHot never reported seeingjuplter
or Mars, even thou^ they were clearly visible.
Klass' report was issued by the Committee for the
Scientific Investi^tion of Claims of the Paraaauial in
Bufialo, N.Y, an organization of scientists whohvesti-
gate claims of UFO sightings, ESP occurreoces and
other so-called parasormal phenomena.
Klass, wholuadstheorganjzation'sUFOsubccmnut-
tee, is the author of UFOs: The PuilieDeetieed. He has
been investigating UFO sightings for more than 20
years.
"Jupiter was only 10 degrees above the horizon,
making it appear to the pilot to be rou^y al bis own
35,000-footaltitude,"said Klass inhis report. Marswas
visible closer to the horizon and to the right ofJupiter,
but'Ws not OS bright, thereport said
"Yhis is not the first time that an experienced pilot
has nustakena bri^t celestialbodyfor a UFO. nor wiU
it be the last," Klass said
AUnitedAirlines fli^t andan AirForceC-I30cargo
plane that were InTerauchi'svidnity at the Hnw of the
claimed sighting were asked to lookfor the object, and
neitherreportedseeingit "I think thatthejapanesepilot
shouldhavebeen a littlemore skepticalwhenthe United
airliner andtheAirForceplanereportedseeingnotlung,"
Klass said Hiesday.
Areportedradar"blip" neartheJapanAirLines plane
wasa spuriousechofromthe mountainous terraanunder
neath Cheaircraft Klass said
Terauchi reported a secondUFOsighting inapprox-
inuk-Iy the some area on Jan. 11. That sq^Uiog was
explained by FDA officials as village lightsbouncing off
ice crystals in the atmosphere. Terauchilater conceded
that that wasa reasonable explanation.