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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.

Open the PDF at page 7 Original source ↗

“Gordon”19 pages

  • 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…
K. Terauchi A no, seven, seven or eight miles.
R. Gordon Okay seven or eight miles, that's what they were saying on the
radar.
K. Terauchi Yeah, this later, so we saw about seven or eight miles ...
R. Gordon Okay
K. Terauchi And, 60 degrees left .•.
R. Gordon Okay
K. Terauchi So out in here small ship is disappear.
R. Gordon Okay, I understand, now lets (unintelligible) what else, see if I
forget anything, visual was a first, what, you showed me exactly
what you saw. Visually sighting, you saw it first uh?
K. Terauchi First
R. Gordon Okay
F. Fujii And (unintelligible) probably how long had you contacted the
target.
R. Gordon No that's what we were saying, five to six minutes before you
called ATC.
K. Terauchi Ye~h, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, that's right.
R. Gordon Okay, did the other crew have trouble sighting the object?
F. Fujii Did the rest of the crew see the lights?
K. Terauchi (More Japanese) So I tried to fix it, but I ah, failed.
Laughter
K. Terauchi Just, shutter was open, did not close, so •••
F. Fujii Yes every crew has seen it.
R. Gordon Okay all the crew members they did see it. Okay. Laughter •..
Yeah that's what I would do (more laughter)
F. Fujii What type of onboard radar?
R. Gordon Yeah, what type of radar was onboard, that ah ?
K. Terauchi It was the kind, ditigal, but I don not know.
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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.