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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.
“FAA”38 pages
U.S. Department ot Transportation Federal Aviation Administration FOR RELEASE ON MARCH 5 , 1987 #87-09 News:Office of Public Affairs Alaskan Region 701 C Street. Box 14 Anchorage. Alaska 995 13 (907) 271-5296 CONTACT: PAUL STEUCKE FM RELEASES DOCUMENTS ON REPORTED UFO SIGITTING LAST OOVEMBER The Federal Aviation Administration today released documents relating to the reported sighting of an unidentified flying object (UFO) over Alaska by a Japan Air Lines flight crew on November 17, 1986, saying it was unable to confirm the event. The material was issued by FAA's Regional Office in Anchorage, Alaska, and included transcripts of pilot-controller corrrnunications, interviews with controllers and the flight crew, radar plots and other data. FAA's Regional Public Affairs Officer Paul Steucke pointed out that FAA normally does not investigate UFO sightings but pursued the JAL incident in its role as the operator of the air traffic control system. He said the agency's objective was to determine if there was an unreported aircraft in the vicinity of the JAL flight that could present a safety hazard. As part of the inquiry, Steucke said, radar data of the JAL flight track was reviewed by FAA experts at the agency's Technical Center in Atlantic City, N. J., using identical equipment. They determined that a second radar target near the JAL flight at the time of the reported sighting was not another aircraft but rather a split radar return from the JAL Boe i ng 747. Techn i cally, this is known as an "uncorrelated primary and beacon target return . " It means that the primary radar signal reflected off the aircraft 1 s surface did not correlate exactly with the pulse err.itted by the aircraft's radar beacon transponder. This phenomenon is not unusual and gives the i mpression of two separate radar targets. Steucke al so noted t hat FAA cont rollers who monitored the JAL aircraf t sai d i n their statements that they thought t here might have been another aircraft because of the dual radar targets. However, a northbound United Air Lines jet t hat was diverted by controllers to intercept the JAL flight path did establi sh vi sual contact with that aircraft but the pilots saw nothing else. The Nov . 17 UFO sighting was reported by JAL Captain Kenjyu Terauchi on a cargo f light over the polar cap from Iceland to Japan via Anchorage. Captain Te r auchi said he had visual contact from approximately the U.S.-Canadian border to south of Fairbanks . On Jan. 11, 1987, Captain Terauchi also reported another sight ing in the same general area as the first. Steucke said FAA is satisfied that the safety of the air traffic control sy s tem was not compromi sed by the lfov . 17 incident and plans no further investigation of the ci rcumstances . I I I
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