JAL Flight 1628
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Evidence quality · 6 components
Behavioral anomalousness · 4 components
TL;DR
FAA Anchorage ARTCC and NORAD Alaska ROCC independently confirmed an unknown radar return tracking alongside JAL Flight 1628 for approximately 32 minutes over Alaska, while the FAA's own investigation was publicly released with 151 pages of documentation.
Confirmed
- ✓FAA Anchorage ARTCC confirmed an unknown radar return near JAL 1628 for approximately 32 minutes (documented in FAA's March 1987 public release)
- ✓NORAD Alaska ROCC independently corroborated ARTCC radar detections
- ✓FAA released 151 pages of investigation materials at a March 1987 press conference - the investigation was not suppressed
- ✓Japan Air Lines grounded Captain Terauchi following the incident
Unresolved
- ?Whether the 32-minute radar return represents the same phenomenon as Terauchi's visual observations
- ?Identity of the radar return - unknown aircraft, classified military traffic, or genuinely anomalous object
- ?Whether CIA personnel attended an FAA internal briefing and ordered participants to remain silent, as claimed by FAA official John Callahan
- ?What caused the massive object Terauchi describes - radar data does not corroborate its reported scale
Strongest mundane explanation
FAA investigators determined Jupiter and Mars were visible in approximately the position of Terauchi's initial visual sighting, which may explain the first phase, while the 32-minute radar return may represent military aircraft on non-standard flight plans in Alaska airspace - but NORAD and ARTCC tracked the return and could not account for it with known traffic.
Japan Air Lines Boeing 747 freighter flight 1628, commanded by Captain Kenju Terauchi, encountered two small objects and then a massive craft over Alaska during a cargo flight from Paris to Tokyo. The FAA confirmed simultaneous radar tracking from both the aircraft and an Air Route Traffic Control Center. Terauchi described the large craft as twice the size of an aircraft carrier. The FAA's investigation was suppressed by internal pressure according to FAA official John Callahan, who later became a Disclosure Project witness. The incident is considered one of the most credible commercial aviation UAP encounters on record.
Key Facts
- ›Date: November 17, 1986, approximately 5:11 PM local Alaskan time
- ›Crew: Captain Kenju Terauchi (20 years experience), co-pilot Takanori Tamefuji, flight engineer Yoshio Tsukuba
- ›Three separate encounters over approximately 50 minutes of flight
- ›First: two small objects with 'rows of nozzles' emitting light flew alongside the 747 for several minutes
- ›Second: a massive object described as 'two times bigger than an aircraft carrier' appeared and followed the aircraft
- ›FAA Anchorage ARTCC radar confirmed a return that followed JAL 1628 for approximately 32 minutes
- ›Alaska Air Defense Command NORAD radar also detected a return
- ›Military aircraft scrambled to investigate but found nothing
- ›FAA conducted an internal investigation; administrator John Callahan later stated the CIA attended the briefing and ordered participants to say nothing
- ›Captain Terauchi was subsequently grounded - a career consequence that other aviation witnesses have also reported