[gatagato]

In November, 1986, a Japanese crew of a jumbo freighter aircraft witnessed three unidentified objects while flying over Alaska. This sighting gained international attention when the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) announced that it was going to officially investigate this sighting because the Air Route Traffic Control Center in Anchorage, Alaska, had reported that the UFO had been detected on radar. Captain Terauchi was featured on numerous radio and TV programs and in People Magazine. Within a few months of these events he was grounded, apparently for his indiscretion of reporting a UFO, even though he was a senior captain with an excellent flying record. Several years later he was reinstated. The UFOs in this case were tracked on both ground and airborne radar, witnessed by experienced airline pilots, and confirmed by a FAA Division Chief.

According to Captain Kenju Terauchi, First Officer Takanori Tamefuji and Flight Engineer Yoshio Tsukuda, two small lights and one huge lighted object were in sight on their radar for more than a half hour.
They watched as they flew 350 miles (550 km.) southward across Alaska from Ft. Yukon toward Anchorage. Captain Terauchi, a veteran of 29 years flying, said "It was a very big one or two times bigger than an aircraft carrier." He changed altitude and made turns, with FAA permission, in an effort to identify the objects which continued to follow him. He said the objects moved quickly and stopped suddenly. At one time, the light from the large object was so bright that it lit the airplane's cockpit and Captain Terauchi said he could feel heat from it on his face. He added that he had been watching the UFO for six minutes before notifying anyone on the ground; this would make the start of the sighting about 6:13 p.m.
The FAA at first confirmed the claims that several of its radar traffic controllers tracked the 747 and the large object, and that U.S. Air Force radar did as well. Later official statements hedged on this, and tried to attribute the radar targets to weather effects. At the end, however, an FAA spokesman stated, "We are accepting the descriptions of the crew, but are unable to support what they saw."

Drawings by Captain Terauchi and the crew of JAL flight 1628 of the UFOs they observed over Alaska in November 1986. Courtesy: FAA.


summary of the communication between JAL Captain Terauchi and ground controllers was published by the Federal Aviation Administration.

The sighting:
The flight controller asked the plane to head toward an air route reporting point (Talkeetna); so the plane turned to the left about 15 degrees to a heading of 215 degrees. It was at this point that Capt. Terauchi, sitting on the left side of the cockpit, first saw the UFO out his side window. (See image below)



This is an article by The Telegraph-Herald (Dec 31, 1986): there's a good description of the incident.


This is a rendering based upon the description that Capt. Terauchi gave to the FAA of the object at the first sighting


This is Capt. Terauchi's actual drawing showing the shape of the craft (and the relative size of the Boeing 747) at the first sighting


This is Capt. Terauchi's actual drawing showing the shape of the two smaller crafts


This is Capt. Terauchi's actual drawing showing how objects moved with respect to the plane and (below), how the radar echo appeared to the weather record display (the target is the one pointed by the arrow)


This drawing shows a side view of one of the object: some parts of it were rotating left to right, some others right to left


This one is Capt. Terauchi's impression of what a top view would look like: the arrows indicate the directions of the rotations


This one is Capt. Terauchi's event map: it shows how the ufo was actually following the plane, including during a dull 360° turn


This one is a rough animation made by me showing (approximately) the fly path of the plane (green) and the one of the UFO (red).


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I hope you'll enjoy this story

Sources & References:
WHEN PILOTS SEE UFOs (ARTICLE BY AIR & SPACE MAGAZINE, 1988)
http://web.archive.org/web/200901062...spacemag87.htm

http://www.ufoevidence.org/topics/JALalaska.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japan_A..._1628_incident
http://jeromeprophet.blogspot.com/20...encounter.html
http://brumac.8k.com/JAL1628/JL1628.html
http://www.nytimes.com/1987/01/05/us...er-alaska.html
http://www.ufocasebook.com/jal1628surfaces.html

[GanjaLoco]

Great post

[WHITEWIDOW]

AWESOME post!