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.

Open the PDF at page 17 Original source ↗

“The Times”11 pages

  • 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 (Japanese) 0.1 ah, inch
F.
R.
F.
R.
F.
R.
Fujii
Gordon
Fujii
Gordon
Fujii
Gordon
About 0.1 •••
Just right on the horizon, the sun was setting?
Yeah, yes. So they don't want to go toward the ship side, they
stayed away from it.
Toward the dark side.
Yes
So that would have put them to the east like on the Canadian side
you're coming down on your side (unintelligible) captain's side?
K. Terauchi Yes
R. Gordon Okay I understand.
K. Terauchi I think, perhaps, they have regulations like they must not be
seen by humans. But it was a surprise to see the sudden
appearance in front of us. If the machine was set automatically
for the distance of eight miles away from us, the machine will
not come closer than eight miles (but they jumped in front of
us), so I felt there was a living creature in it. It jumped in
front of us, very unusual. They took such unexpected action.
Try the other one(?)
F. Fujii Seems like they're trying to stay away, I guess there's some kind
of regulation for them to not be seen by • • •
R. Gordon Ah uh, I understand. I have one more question that came up that
I was thinking; now when he departed, departed east? Is that
what someone told me; which direction did, when he departed, went
away?
F. Fujii Which direction did it take off to?
K. Terauchi I don't know. Probably to the east.
F. Fujii He thinks it's east, he's not really sure. He was looking at it
and it just dissappeared, so •••
R. Gordon Okay, appeared that it went east, but it went so fast?
K. Terauchi So fast.
R. Gordon Okay
F. Fujii He wa s watching it and it just disappeared •••
16

Cited by

About this file

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.