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.

Open the PDF at page 27 Original source ↗

“humming”12 pages

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…

F. Fujii Size, estimate, ah, size
K. Terauchi (More Japanese) Two times, or ah, I guess ah . . .
F. Fujii (unintelligible) seven four seven
R. Gordon Okay
K. Terauchi So ah, size is ah, carrier
R. Gordon Ah uh, in other words this being the jumbo jet was about as big
as just the light . . .?
K. Terauchi See this is the jumbo jet. 1.5, two times this light.
R. Gordon Okay, okay, I have ••• so the side light on this thing was
about, the jumbo is about two to two-and-a-half time the size of
this light, so when you stack 'em up, you •••
K. Terauchi Yeah, yeah, yeah • • •
R. Gordon were saying about two times as big as an aircraft carrier.
K. Terauchi Yeah, yeah, yeah.
R. Gordon Okay
K. Terauchi It felt like this big - (he made a circle by using his fingers);
seven to eight miles away and it was this big. Normally, an air
carrier is seven - eight miles away, it looks like this.
F. Fujii Seven or eight miles away, usually the aircrafts are like
this •
R. Gordon Ah uh, okay
F. Fujii About this big so • • •
R. Gordon Okay
F. Fujii with his estimate.
R. Gordon So he's kinda comparing it to another jumbo jet?
F. Fujii Yeah, yeah • • •
R. Gordon Okay
S. Mimoto (More Japanese) Tremendous
R. Gordon Oh yeah (laughter), boy, okay
F. Fujii Go for this size here, this one.
11 ~- -

Cited by

Japan Air Lines Flight 1628: The Alaska Mothership 1986

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.