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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…
Tsukuba: Alpha 7,000. It is made by Minoruta.
is called in America. I wonderwhat it
Beckner: Have you seen this kind of thing before? Was this the
first time anything of this nature has happened to you?
Tsukuba: Yes, this was the first tima.
Beckner: Who first sighted the object?
Tsukuba: I do not know which person picked it up first. I was
making a landing data. The Captain told us tc sea if
there is a some kind cf object outsid•.
Beckner: Did you see the radar?
Tsukuba: Whan the Captain told ma ta look, I could se• th•
radar.
Beckner: Were you able to see it on radar? What did you sea on
th• radar?
Tsukuba: Yes, a green dot like, not exactly like a dot. It was
not a dot, but stream like, I think the rang• was about
10 miles. I do not think it was the
same lights as the one I saw in front of us.
Beckner: How was the intensity of the lights? Did th• intensity
of the objects' lights change?
Tsukuba: Basically th• same. I cannot d•5criba it. Not even in
Japanese. Th• first one did not change. Tha second
light was vary difficult to see. It was so vagua.
Beckner: Was any other target picked up on radar?
Tsukuba1 I cannot ram•mber.
difficult to see.
Tha tilt angle of th• radar was
Beckn•r: Difficult to ramamber, on the radar, did you have to
lock for tha object?
Tsukuba: I identified immediately th• one in front of us •
Becknar: At the time of sighting, how were the lighting
conditions outside?
2

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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.