6.10 The Japan Air Lines Incident (1986

6.10 The Japan Air Lines Incident (1986)

On November 17, 1986, Captain Kenju Terauchi was at the helm of a B-747 cargo jet. The two-person crew consisted of a flight officer and a flight engineer. Captain Terauchi was a 29year veteran pilot in 1986. Flight 1628 was en route to Tokyo via Rekyjavik, Iceland and Anchorage, Alaska. At approximately 6:00 pm in the evening, the aircraft was passing over the Canadian/Alaskan border and the crew was making preparations to land at Anchorage. At 6:19 pm Alaska Standard Time, Capt. Terauchi radioed a traffic information request to the Anchorage Air Route Traffic Control Center. Air Traffic Control Specialist Carl Henley checked his radar and told the captain there was no traffic in his vicinity. Capt. Terauchi responded that lighted traffic was in close proximity at 12 o’clock at the same altitude as Flight 1628, following or shadowing his aircraft. Terauchi declined a request by Specialist Henley to check higher and lower altitude traffic, stating later that the object was level with the plane. Henley checked with Elmendorf Air Force Base radar and learned they had a primary target in the same position Terauchi reported. During some of the frequent radio exchanges between Henley and Flight 1628, Henley did find primary returns in the same areas JL1628 reported traffic. Terauchi requested and obtained permission to make turns and deviations. The captain reported to Henley that the object stayed right with the 747.

At one point, Terauchi asked for and obtained permission to make a 360° turn to the right to fly parallel to the object, at which time it was not visible. When Terauchi returned to his original course, the object was there, as if it had been waiting for them, the Captain later said in his statement for the FAA. Specialist Henley also vectored a United Airlines aircraft and a military C-130 within range to have a look. Each pilot reported no contact, although Terauchi had also lost visual sight of the UFO by then.

During the course of the event, Henley observed three types of tentative radar targets. When Henley asked Terauchi to describe the object, he stated that he could not identify any markings nor state what kind of aircraft it might be. Under clear, cloudless conditions, Terauchi stated that he saw white and yellow strobing lights on the unidentified craft. The 747’s on-board color radar was employed throughout the course of the sighting to determine the distance from the plane to the object as five to seven nautical miles.

Capt. Terauchi and his crew were interviewed and debriefed by Jack Wright83 of the FAA upon landing at Anchorage. During the debriefing, Capt. Terauchi stated that this was the first time anything like this had happened to him. Explaining the incident, Terauchi said that just after passing the Canadian/Alaskan border, flying at 35,000 feet, an object, at times larger than the B747, with four or five lights in a line, appeared approximately five to seven nautical miles in front of the aircraft. At times, more than one UFO was visible. The sighting lasted nearly an hour--55 minutes per the FAA report.

Although the Captain and his crew were a bit shaken, the FAA determined them to be professional and rational.

According to Timothy Good’s account in his book Above Top Secret, Captain Terauchi reported that he was unable to explain the event in conventional terms and said that the objects may have been extraterrestrial in origin since they moved and stopped so quickly. The Captain remarked that they were carrying French wine to Japan, stating "maybe they wanted to drink it."84

83 Incident and interview report by Jack Wright (FAA) in Appendix I. (Documents A1.13). 84 Good, Timothy, Above Top Secret, William Morrow, New York, 1988, p. 432.