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Case · C-053

JAL Flight 1628: lights beside a cargo plane in the Alaska sky

Airspace of northeastern Alaska, between the Canadian border and Fairbanks · United States · Nov 17, 1986

In flight Pilots Radar

Unexplained

What happened
On November 17, 1986, the crew of the Japan Air Lines 1628 cargo Boeing 747, flying from Europe to Tokyo via Anchorage, reported lights and a large object accompanying the aircraft over eastern Alaska; Captain Terauchi later spoke about it publicly. Anchorage control saw a second radar target for a period, but a United aircraft diverted to check saw nothing other than the 747. On March 5, 1987, the FAA released transcripts, interviews and radar data, stating that it could not confirm the event; for a new sighting by the same captain on January 11, 1987, the agency considered the effect of ice crystals on village lights probable.
Proposed explanation
The FAA stated that it could not confirm the event and attributed the second radar target to a split return of the 747 itself (primary target and uncorrelated transponder response). The skeptical journalist Philip J. Klass argued that the crew had seen Jupiter and Mars; the captain's account, however, describes objects very close to the aircraft.
Official investigation
Federal Aviation Administration (Alaskan Region); the region's military radars
Words of the document
unable to confirm the event

Official documents

  1. FAA Alaskan Region, comunicati stampa sul caso JAL 1628, tra cui «FAA releases documents on reported UFO sighting last November» (fondo NARA RG 237, serie 733667) · Federal Aviation Administration, Alaskan Region (The Black Vault copy) · Mar 5, 1987
  2. Uncorrelated radar signals · Federal Aviation Administration, Alaskan Region (The Black Vault copy) · Mar 5, 1987

Sources

  1. The Debrief, “What Really Happened to Japan Airlines Flight 1628 in 1986?”, 2021 (analysis)
  2. Robert Sheaffer, “JAL 1628: Capt. Terauchi's Marvelous 'Spaceship'”, Skeptical Inquirer, 2014 (PDF) (analysis, skeptical)
  3. Skeptoid, “The Japan Air Lines Alaska UFO” (episode 753) (analysis, skeptical)
  4. Wikipedia – Japan Air Lines Cargo Flight 1628 (other)

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