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Package compiled for FAA managers

FAA via National Archives / The Black Vault · 122 pages · text from the file's own layer

This package was compiled by the FAA Alaskan Region Public Affairs Office in Anchorage and sent to FAA managers with a memo from Paul Steucke dated March 5, 1987. It gathers material on the November 17, 1986 sighting by the crew of Japan Air Lines flight 1628: a news release, pilot and controller transcripts, crew interviews and radar analysis. The FAA concluded that it could not confirm the event. It attributed the second radar target to a split, uncorrelated return from the JAL Boeing 747 and planned no further investigation.

  • p. 3 …Investi gation of Japan Air Lines flight 1628 Sighting of Unidentified Air Traffic on November 17…
  • p. 5 …but •.• JL1628 = Japan Air Lines flight #1628 Rl.5 = Controller positicn, Anchorage Air Route Traffic Control…
  • p. 7 …sixty one line. Approach. Look at your radar. We got a Japan Air one six~ eight…
  • p. 82 …a report concerning the incident to Japan Airlines Flight 1628 (JL1628) north of Fairbanks, Alaska on…
  • p. 107 …86 unidentified object sighting by Japan Air Lines flight 1628. (5 pages) PLEASE COMPLETE AND RETURN…
Paul Steucke
FAA, Public Affairs Officer
Alaskan Region
701 C Street, Box 14
Anchorage, Alaska 995 13
~·l arch 5, 1987
LACK OF "SCIElll'IFIC" INVESTIGATION
The Federal Aviation Administration has a number of employees who do
scientific research with regard to aircraft, aviation, and related electronic
equipment. The FAA does not have the resources or the Congressional mandate to
investigate sightings of unidentified flying objects.
We have not tried to determine what the crew of Japan Airlines flight 1628
saw based on scientific analysis of the stars, planets, magnetic fields, angle
of view, etc. We have received letters from several persons suggesting that we
ask the crew and others a variety of detailed questions from a scientific
viewpoint. This we have not done and do not intend to do. He reviewed the data
that was created by our systems, the interviews that were done by FAA to
determine the status of the crew and the aircraft, and have provided that
information to the public.
The FAA has completed its investigation of JAL flight 1628, and does not
intend to pursue it any further."
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Document, cited by the archive. The PDF is mirrored here; the original link is above. 122 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.