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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. 4 …They determined that a second radar target near the JAL flight at the time of the…
  • p. 5 AAL-5, FAA February 4, 1987 SELEX:TED PORI'IONS OF TRANSCRIPI'IOO ~ THE INCIDENI' INVOLVING…
  • p. 7 …Approach center (Fairbanks FAA tower) on the sixty one line. Approach. Look at your radar. We…
  • p. 8 …Sir, the military radar advises they do have a primary target in trail of you at…
  • p. 10 …see the traffic any long-er. Affinnative. Okay sir, we're searchi.rXJ this time, we…
  • p. 15 …Th ese uncorrelated primary returns are not uncommon, due critical timing associated with the delay adjustments…
  • p. 17 …Terauchi No, third time. R. Gordon This is the third time that ah that you've…
  • p. 18 …Terauchi Big Ship - yes and the second time ah, the, in my home I saw a…
  • p. 19 …Terauchi I think it was the first time. F. Fujii Who was the first person who…
  • p. 20 …Fujii From the forward you could see the flame and the exhaust and flame were surrounding…
  • p. 21 …This one and this one, the same logic, this point and this point are the same…
  • p. 23 …Fujii When did you pick it up, the radar? K. Terauchi Time? Time? F. Fujii Time…
  • p. 24 …Autopilot stayed on all the time. K. Terauchi Yeah • R. Gordon Okay K. Terauchi Working good…
  • p. 27 …Terauchi See this is the jumbo jet. 1.5, two times this light. R. Gordon Okay…
  • p. 28 …Gordon Yeah, let's see what would you estimate the size of the small ships to…
  • p. 33 …Gordon Yes, yes, you could probably explain that with the thing you have drawn here. Now…
  • p. 35 …See if they were stacked together at the beginning, one must have returned to the mothership…
  • p. 38 Meeting the Future by Kenju Terauchi M~ ,...,. ~ L. '1\ ti;f,) !ST .$, /Y11"'1ol"O Page…
  • p. 39 MEETING THE FUTURE .. Page 5 .. We took a flight course Southeast of Greenland direct to Chule…
  • p. 40 …the same time. The strange phenomenon happened immediately.after we began left rotation, following the order…
  • p. 41 …the ground radar did not show any aircraft but us. They also asked us several times…
  • p. 42 …I changed auto- focus to manual-focus and pressed the shutter but this time the shutter…
  • p. 47 …lone time before we received When we checked our rear there was still the ship!iI…
  • p. 48 …About the same time a United Airline passenger aircraft which left Anchorage to Fairbanks flew into…
  • p. 49 …About the same time a United Airline passenger aircraft which left Anchorage to Fairbanks flew into…
  • p. 50 ~Page 16~ The strange encounter ended at 75 miles North of Talkeetna, 150 miles (Approximately 276…
  • p. 51 …The following is a record of the interview: P. Beckner ? P. Beckner Conducted at this time…
  • p. 53 …clear • And you could distinguish this lights as being different from the star . . ?.. NNNooo . . . • from the…
  • p. 54 …Tamefuji ••• so maybe he couldn't see at that time, but the Captain and me (unintelligible…
  • p. 57 …Mimoto The physical requires him to wear glasses. P. Beckner Okay , how ' bout - how 'bout the…
  • p. 58 …Now - the time of the incident, when - when you guys first saw the objects, ah what…
  • p. 60 …long did you see this total, the length of time that you saw it? T. Tamefuji…
  • p. 66 …Beckner By the engineer table? T. Tamefuji Yes, I - when I saw, but ah, cockpit was…
  • p. 67 …the trip? He felt that, er, er, was it just during this period of time when…
  • p. 68 …Beckner First saw the object? T. Tamefuj1 Hummm , I thi nk ah , at the same time…
  • p. 69 …So pretty much at the same time you both saw it? T ~ Tamefuji Right P. Beckner…
  • p. 70 …Beckner ••• or were they pretty much the same intensity for the time that you saw them…
  • p. 72 …And tha - so that was the last time you saw it, was prior to the turn…
  • p. 74 …after I sighted it the first time. The reason is because the Captain wanted to take…
  • p. 75 …At the time of sighting, how were the lighting conditions outside? 2
  • p. 78 …When I was interviewed here at the first time by FAA personnel, I was not sure…
  • p. 80 PERSONNEL STATEMENT FEDERAL AVIATION ADMINISTRATION Anchorage Air Route Traffic Control Center January 6, 1987 The following…
  • p. 81 …ROCC did have primary ta r get in the same position JL1628 reported. Several times I…
  • p. 84 …During the time period p~ior to this incident all operations were normal. I had assigned…
  • p. 88 …They stated that all they oould see were the lights and at no time could they…
  • p. 100 …At no time did either crewmember see anything outside the aircraft. The area is not within…
  • p. 101 …directly over the town of Arctic Village, Alaska, at the time of the first sighting and…
  • p. 103 …Department of TransportctiOn Federal Aviation Administration (The event occurred Ofhce of Public Affus Alaskan Region 701…
  • p. 104 …18, 1986 UTC (The event occurred on November 17, 1986 Alaska Standard Time) PLE ASE MARK…
  • p. 114 …as derivatives and duplicates) • Document the image at the time of scanning, not what it may…
  • p. 115 …adjustments to the tone distribution and/or color balance. However, at this time, monitors for viewing…
  • p. 116 …benefits, at this time we feel that RGB files produced to the color and tone reproduction…
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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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.