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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
OEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION F[C[ .. AL AVIATION AONIHIST .. ATIOH cm November 17, I respond.ed to a call fran the OC:C reference an incident involving unidentified air traffic (UA'.l') follCMi.ng JAL flight 1628 into lw::horage. I asked Agent Mickle to r.eet me at An~rage Airport. Upon arriving at ANC, I rnet Agent Mickle and Inspector Wright (FS00-63) wtX> had l:een at the aircraft. All three of us then oro- ceded to ..m operations to intei:vier,.r the cre.H. At JAL Operations we met with captain Terauchi, 1st Officer Tarrefuji, and 2nd Officer Tsukuda along with Mr. Shimba.shi, the JAL Operations Manager at An~rage. The three crer.-.m:n stated that just after passing rorAT inter- section inl:ound to Anchorage on J529 they obsexved strange lights ahead of their B-747. 'lllese lights changed i;:osition after 2 minutes ;but remained in front of the A/C for another 10 minutes, then rroved to the left side of the A/C. They stated that all they oould see were the lights and at no time could they see any craft. However, they did sl"ON an object on their \·2X radar at al::out 7 miles. The lights were yellow, amber, and green, rut no red. 'ttle lights were in tw:::> seperate sets which changed i;:osition relative to one another. The crer,.r said that they contacted AFm:c oonf imed that they also had it on radar. Near Fairbanks, the crew executed a 360° turn and the lights stayed with them off of their left side. They then preceded to Anchorage.,..i);ld the lights were still visible until arourrl 40 miles oorth of TF;r"11en they It'O\Ted ~y to the east. The crew refOrted their speed as 0.84 Mach and their altit00e bebt.1een FL390 and 310 as assigned along the route. The only problem noted with their systens was sane static in the VHF receiver. The Navigational systan in use was n~s with oo apparent problens. Upon O::ztpletion of my discussion with the crer,.r, I called Captain Stevens (Duty Officer to OORAD) and asked if he had any question other than what I had asked. He said he had ro other questions, but they also slx::iwed t\Yo targets on radar (one was JAL). He stated that they "'10uld give all data to Intelligence in the trorning. I then asked BolX1y Lamkin by phone if M' was holding the data and he said yes. FAA Form 1600°32°112-111 AT ~ra_9e..!. ~~- __ , l"IL! HO. FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY. (Puhllc rrvallo0illty lo M •- •1to uz 0 n • ,.,.,.,n.o ..,,,., 5 u. S. C. 552J ..
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