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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. 21 …Terauchi Hum uh, ah distances is ah, ah, not this, this one ah, 500, ah be…
  • p. 54 …Tamefuji ••• So as I thought, ah, very same similiar altitude and Captain said, ah, hum, I…
  • p. 56 …Tamefuji ••• and ah, I remember, red or orange, hum, and a white landing light, just like…
  • p. 58 …Tamefuji Hum P. Beckner • or was it dusk? Or was the sun still up er, how…
  • p. 59 …but ah, at first we have in flight . . . ? Hum huh. T. Tamefuji . at ATC, air traffic…
  • p. 61 …Tamefuji hum.mm, and ah, I have ah, monitoring, monitor so inside and outside • • • P. Beckner…
  • p. 62 …Tamefuji Mmmm hum P. Beckner Did ·you happen to see the object while in the 360…
  • p. 63 …Tamefuji so ah, we, ah, I couldn't see well, but some hum, hum this - this…
  • p. 68 …Tamefuji Hum • P. Beckner About how long after you first saw this did you go' b…
  • p. 69 …Tamefuji Um hum P. Beckner I understand somewhere in the flight you guys also descended from…
  • p. 70 …Beckner Hum huh T. Tamefuji P. Beckner • • • and ah, I can't say. Okay. Okay ah…
  • p. 71 …Tamefuji Hum, hum P. Beckner This was in the newspaper here in Anchorage, for example. And…
K. Terauchi A no, seven, seven or eight miles.
R. Gordon Okay seven or eight miles, that's what they were saying on the
radar.
K. Terauchi Yeah, this later, so we saw about seven or eight miles •••
R. Gordon Okay
K. Terauchi And, 60 degrees left •••
R. Gordon Okay
K. Terauchi So out in here small ship is disappear.
R. Gordon Okay, I understand, now lets (unintelligible) what else, see if I
forget anything, visual was a first, what, you showed me exactly
what you saw. Visually sighting, you saw it first uh?
K. Terauchi First
R. Gordon Okay
F. Fujii And (unintelligible) probably how long had you contacted the
target.
R. Gordon No that's what we were saying, five to six minutes before you
called ATC.
f
K. Terauchi Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, that's right.
R. Gordon Okay, did the other crew have trouble sighting the object?
F. Fujii Did the rest of the crew see the lights?
K. Terauchi (More Japanese) So I tried to fix it, but I ah, failed.
Laughter
K. Terauchi Just, shutter was open, did not close, so •••
F. Fujii Yes every crew has seen it.
R. Gordon Okay all the crew members they did see it. Okay. Laughter •••
Yeah that's what I would do (more laughter)
F. Fujii What type of onboard radar?
R. Gordon Yeah , what type of radar was onboard, that ah ?
K. Terauchi I t wa s the kind, ditigal, but I don not know.
6

About this file

Document, cited by the archive. The PDF is mirrored here; the original link is under it. 122 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.