Japan Air Lines Flight 1628, Alaska (17 Nov 1986)
Unproven What these labels mean →A JAL 747 cargo flight (Reykjavík → Anchorage, Beaujolais wine) crewed by Capt. Kenju Terauchi (29 years' experience), co-pilot Takanori Tamefuji and engineer Yoshio Tsukuda reported two amber light belts, then 'cylinders wrapped in lateral lines' and a huge walnut-shaped object ~'twice the size of an aircraft carrier', pacing them for ~50 minutes over northeastern Alaska. Anchorage ARTCC and military radar saw intermittent returns near the aircraft. With FAA clearance the crew descended (35,000 → 31,000 ft) and made a 360° turn; the object stayed. A United flight sent to look saw nothing before the light vanished. The FAA's public file (Black Vault FOIA): the crew were 'normal, rational, professional' with no drugs or alcohol, but the agency reached **no conclusion**. Spokesman Paul Steucke said the FAA blip was a coincidental 'split image' of the 747 and military returns were 'clutter'. Earlier, Steucke said 'the military has been unable—or unwilling—to provide any information… They're saying nothing.' Klass (CSICOP) proposed Jupiter and Mars; others proposed village lights on ice crystals.
Ties
| To | Role | Years | Verdict | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| RB-47 radar-visual case (1957) | an aircrew + ground radar case disputed as radar artifact | 1957/1986 | Concept | |
| Coyne helicopter encounter (1973) | a professional crew with a skeptic 'astronomical' counter (meteor/Jupiter) | 1973/1986 | Concept | |
| Suppression pattern | military 'unable—or unwilling' to provide info; FAA 'nothing to investigate', then a file with no conclusion; alleged CIA confiscation (Callahan) | 1986–2001 | Unproven Handling | documents.theblackvault.com |
Links
- Black Vault: FAA JAL 1628 file (FOIA, PDF) (user-supplied; 51 pp, press and FAA material read)
- Wikipedia: Japan Air Lines Flight 1628 incident
Notes
| Claim | Record | Tag |
|---|---|---|
| Crew sighting of lights and a giant object, ~50 min, near Fort Yukon → Fairbanks | Crew interviews in the FAA file; press | crew report |
| Crew 'normal, rational, professional', no drug or alcohol evidence | FAA investigators (released Mar 1987) | crew assessment |
| Radar: FAA blip = 'split image' of the 747; military = 'clutter'; replay showed only the JAL plane | FAA's Steucke | FAA radar statement |
| Controllers at the time thought the return was a real object (per controller Sam Rich) | Anchorage Daily News | contemporaneous controller view |
| Military 'unable—or unwilling—to provide any information' | Steucke, early Jan 1987 | military silence |
| FAA released its file with no conclusion (5 Mar 1987) | Anchorage Daily News | FAA no conclusion |
| Jupiter and Mars explanation | Klass/CSICOP (1987) | Jupiter |
| FAA division chief John Callahan (2001, Disclosure Project): a CIA briefing ordered the data kept and said 'this meeting never happened' | Verified as his testimony (Disclosure Project 2001; UFO Evidence doc1324): a meeting with FAA, USAF and CIA; a CIA attendee said 'This event never happened; we were never here; we're confiscating all this data'. He says he kept a personal copy. No corroborating CIA/FAA record in the released file | testimony exists event, single witness |
| Terauchi's second sighting (Jan 1987) was a mistake, as he admitted | Press | second sighting retracted |