Documents / Document

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…
...
A JAL flight engineer, Yoshie Tsukuba, was interviewed by Pete
Beckner of FAA on January 15, 1987, through an interpreter,
Sayoko Mimoto, regarding to the UFO which had been sighted on the
17th of November, 1986, by Captain Terauchi.
Beckner:
Tsukuba:
Beckner:
Mimoto:
Tsukuba:
Beckner:
Describe what you saw.
May I speak in Japanese?
Oh! Yes, please.
Oh! yes, please.
The first tima I saw it was through the Ll window, at
the 11 o'clock position. It looked larger than
navigation lights. I do not remember · exactly how many
of those were there but cluster5 of lights
were undulating.
What was the color of those lights, was it green?
Tsukuba: I can not describe the details but it was white or
amber colored lights.
Beckner: When you saw the object was it obvious to you? Did you
notice it immediately?
Tsukuba: Yes, it was. I noticed it immediately.
Beckner: Did it stay with you at position 11 o'clock?
did you see this object?
How long
Tsukuba: Yes, approximately 5 minutes, 10 minutes, I think I saw
it for about 10 minutes after I sighted it the first
time. The reason is because the Captain wanted to take
pictures. His camera bag was placed behind his seat,
beside mine, and I handed it to him. But he could not
take pictures, so I placed his camera bag beside my
seat again. Sa I think it took about 10 minutes.
Be c kner: Why could he not take any pictures?
Ts ukuba: We ll, his camera is Alpha 7,000, with film ASA 100. He
could not operate it wall. I mean the operating
procedure of the camera was not understood well.
Beckner: What kind of camera did he hav•?
1

About this file

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.