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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 RECORD OF INTERVIEW WITH JAL CAPTAIN Richard Gordon, Manager, FSD0-63 Kenju Terauchi, Captain, JAL Frank…
  • p. 3 …Terauchi 2 am R. Gordon When last month Interruption R. Gordon Okay, excuse me one moment…
  • p. 4 …Gordon K. Terauchi R. Gordon F . Fujii R. Gordon K. Terauchi F . Fujii R. Gordon ? R…
  • p. 5 R. Gordon Okay, yes K. Terauchi But this one is nozzle direction (Japanese)(garbled) we couldn…
  • p. 6 …R. Gordon Well they're alot, much larger. K. Terauchi Yes, much larger • R. Gordon So…
  • p. 7 …eight miles ... R. Gordon Okay K. Terauchi And, 60 degrees left .•. R. Gordon Okay K. Terauchi…
  • p. 8 R. Gordon Digital color? K. Terauchi Yes colored, digital R. Gordon Okay, fine, yeah, that's…
  • p. 9 …when ah • • • R. Gordon K. Terauchi R. Gordon K. Terauchi R. Gordon See, it just says…
  • p. 10 …Gordon Oh yeah uh hu, okay sure F. Fujii It was like two R. Gordon Okay…
  • p. 11 …photo. R. Gordon Okay, okay F. Fujii So the (unintelligible) was dark. R. Gordon Okay, that…
  • p. 12 …this • R. Gordon Ah uh, okay F. Fujii About this big so . . . R. Gordon Okay F…
  • p. 13 …Oh yes • R. Gordon Like this . K. Terauchi Yeah, yeah, yeah R. Gordon Okay K. Terauchi…
  • p. 14 …change. R. Gordon They didn't change, huh? K. Terauchi Steady, steady. R. Gordon Okay, the…
  • p. 15 …moon light. R. Gordon Ah uh, I understand. K. Terauchi (Japanese) R. Gordon So the moon…
  • p. 16 …air. R. Gordon You got no turbulence? K. Terauchi No turbulence. R. Gordon So it's…
  • p. 17 …Fujii Gordon Fujii Gordon Fujii Gordon About 0.1 ••• Just right on the horizon, the sun…
  • p. 18 …R. Gordon Yeah K. Terauchi This one, this one, are the same. R. Gordon Same K…
  • p. 19 …R. Gordon Okay 75 miles north of Talkeetna • K. Terauchi Yeah, yeah R. Gordon • it went…
  • p. 20 …Terauchi Yeah s. Mimoto R. Gordon s. Mimoto R. Gordon s. Mimoto K. Terauchi I thought…
R. Gordon Yeah, I got that out of that other one that there was two and
then it went back to the mothership.
K. Terauchi Yeah
s. Mimoto
R. Gordon
s. Mimoto
R. Gordon
s. Mimoto
K. Terauchi
I thought maybe there was more then two.
Oh I see, I'm glad you asked that. There were only two?
Only two.
But one was larger then the other like there was two of 'em were
stuck together, right?
Then both are the same size, possible got (stuck) together later?
Yes, possibly. The one I saw first, it was this long. See if
they were stacked together at the beginning, one must have
returned to the mothership soon after the separtation.
S. Mimoto This (unintelligible)
R. Gordon Oh you saw that, and then they separated like they were together
and then they came apart.
K. Terauchi (Japanese)
R. Gordon Ah uh, okay. Same thing, and make sure that I'm right here, that
ah, ah airplane, first sighting, and say this is over here, then
it would have •••
S. Mimoto (unintelligible)
R. Gordon Okay, fine just so we know if someone asks us that question we
can answer. Very good. Well I have a lot better understanding
of what transpired then what we got out of a bunch of people when
we talked, and I want to thank you folks for your time. I really
appreciate it.
19

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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.