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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. 39 …Alaska time when we reported our location to Edmonton Center from above Single Point, Canada (68…
We kept observing the lights below us in left front, thinking it
was ridiculous to have lazer beam testing at the end of a tundr~
area. Then the two lights began to move in a manner diff eren1
from ordinary aircraft maneuvers, like two bear cubs playing with
each other. We continued the flight South along a straight
course since the distance from the lights was far enough from us
and their movement was not extreme and we felt no immediate
danger . . I thought perhaps it is one of those things called UFO
and taking a photo might help to identify the object later. I
asked to bring forward my camera bag that was placed in the rear
of the cockpit and began to take a picture. The area in which
the plane was flying was unchanged but the lights were still
movini strangely. I had ASA 100 film in my camera, mainly to
take scenery and had auto-focus on, aimed at the object but the
lens kept adjusting and never could set a focus. I changed auto-
focus to manual-focus and pressed the shutter but this time the
shutter would not close. Then our aircraft started to vibrate
and I gave up taking a photo. I placed my camera back in the
camera bag and concentrated on observing the lights.
[Personal statement concerning JAL Flight 1628 sighting of
unidentified air traffic, Nov. 17, 1986. Written by Capt.
Kenju Terauchi; translated by Sayoko Mimoto, FAA Alaskan
Region, Airway Facilities Division. Received ~y FAA 1/2/87)

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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.