Documents / Document

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…
^ attrisco (Chronicle
Ut-
on*
;to
Uh
ng
in-
al
Ir
re
id
r.
15
It
U.S. Is Selling Kits
On UFO Sighting
Anchorage '
•' If yon want an inside Idok
at a Japan Air Lines pilot's re
cent claim that he saw a UFO,
the F^eral Aviation Adminis
tration willsend youeverything
you ever wanted to know about
the case for 1194^. . ;
The complete package includes
tapes ofinterviews withcrew mem
bers, spaceship drawings by the
JAL pilot and air controller state
ments, even four glossy color
photos ofregenerated radar data.
The unusual FAA mail-order
offer Is an attempt to cope with
enormous public interest inthe No
vember sighting, said spokesman
PaulSteucke.
Since the pilot's claim was pub
licly disclosed, the FAA's Anchor-
age office has received information
requests from more than 200 mem
bers of the press, as well as 46 re
quests fromindividuals.
For those on tight budgets, the
FAA's UFO package can be broken
down.The agencyis offering M in
dividual items, ranging from a.650
cassette tapeofcommunications be
tween the controllers and the flight
crew to a dOcent copy of an FAA
form summarizingthe sighting. Or
ders of less than $5 are free.
"Wewantedto be as responsive
as we can to the public. We dont
want them to spend $100 for data
they don't need," Steucke said.
JAL Captain Kenjyu TeraucW
reported on November 17 that his
Boeing 747 cargo Jet was shadowed
by two belts of Ught as it cro^M
into Alaska airspace on a flight
from Iceland to Anchorage.
In an encounter that lasted .
about 50 minutes, Terauchi also re
ported seeing a. third, aircraft, a
huge spac^hip thathesaid was the
size of two aircraft carriers. He ra
dioed the sighting to Anchorage
FAA flight controllers, who saw
whattheythought was anobject on
their rad^ screens.
The objects, Terauchi said,
"were not made by humankind.
They were of a very high intelli
gence."
PhUip J. Klass, an editor with
Aviation weex andSpace Technolo
gy and a longtime investigator of
claimed sightings of unidentified
flying objects, has investigated the
-incident and concluded that the pi
lotwasactually seeing an unusually
bri^t image of the planet Jupiter
c
E
b
P
I]
I
fi
b
Ii
and possibly Mars. '
The FAA is scheduled td';)^
lease on March 5 the results, of Its
investigationof the sighting.
f The FAA address in Anchoi^ge
is 701 C Street, Box 14. Anchoragb,
Ataka 09513.

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.