Documents / Hearing transcript

Terauchi interview transcript, Dick Gordon, 2 Jan 1987

FAA via National Archives / The Black Vault · 20 pages · text from the file's own layer

This FAA record of interview documents a January 2, 1987 session in Anchorage, Alaska, in which Inspector Richard O. Gordon of FSDO-63 questioned JAL Captain Kenju Terauchi about his crew's November 17, 1986 sighting. Terauchi describes two small craft with exhaust-like lights that flew near his aircraft and a much larger mothership, and says the target appeared green on his onboard radar. He also reports VHF interference and says the objects matched his 360-degree turn and his descent.

  • p. 2 …Terauchi No, third time . R. Gordon This is the third time that ah that you've…
  • p. 3 …Terauchi Big Ship - yes and the second time ah, the, in my home I saw a…
  • p. 4 …Terauchi I think it was the first time. F . Fujii Who was the first person who…
  • p. 5 …Fujii From the forward you could see the flame and the exhaust and flame were surrounding…
  • p. 6 …This one and this one, the same logic, this point and this point are the same…
  • p. 8 …Fujii When did you pick it up, the radar? K. Terauchi Time? Time? F. Fujii Time…
  • p. 9 …Autopilot stayed on all the time. K. Terauchi Yeah • R. Gordon Okay K. Terauchi Working good…
  • p. 12 …Terauchi See this is the jumbo jet. 1.5, two times this light. R. Gordon Okay…
  • p. 13 …Gordon Yeah, let's see what would you estimate the size of the small ships to…
  • p. 18 …Gordon Yes, yes, you could probably explain that with the thing you have drawn here. Now…
  • p. 20 …See if they were stacked together at the beginning, one must have returned to the mothership…
K. Terauchi Yeah, yeah, yeah.
R. Gordon Okay
S. Mimoto Was it's sound like speaking in German, or just jamming noise?
K. Terauchi It was just noise, sounded zaa, zaa
R. Gordon Oh just noise ••. Okay, okay I misunderstood you, I'm glad you
brought that out.
K. Terauchi Normally when you can hear clearly it is digital 5. 5, 4, 3, 2 ,
1 - but it was about 2.
F. Fujii You know five by five radio communication
R. Gordon Oh yeah uh hu, okay sure
F. Fujii It was like two
R. Gordon Okay okay, like two
K. Terauchi Sometimes missing, sometimes missing.
R. Gordon Like, almost like, ah, ba ckground noise?
K. Terauchi Yes, yes.
R. Gordon Okay, and then when it, when the little small lights departed the
noise went away, then back to real clear communications?
K. Te r auchi Yes, that's right.
R. Gordon Okay, fine, ah, lets see, I'm going to come back to thirteen,
because ah • • •
F. Fujii Oka y
R. Gordon What was there any question?
F. Fujii Did you see any reflection on the glass (window)?
R. Gordon Inside the cockpit, was it dark, all the light off inside the
cockpit?
K. Te r auchi Oh ah, dark yeah, yeah, yeah.
K. Terauchi Therefore, there was not reflection of inside. No reflection
from inside. So when I took the camera bag, finding t he object,
a ll the light s were turned off, made room dark - cargo room and
passenge r r oom, there was nothing to reflect.
F. Fuj ii We ha ve ah , on a cargo plane we ha ve a ba ck lounge .
9

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Hearing transcript, cited by the archive. The PDF is mirrored here; the original link is under it. 20 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.