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The
Fantastic Flight of JAL1628
by Bruce Maccabee
Introduction
This is the complete report on the UFO sighting by
the Japanese crew of a jumbo freighter aircraft in November, 1986. 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. What
you are about to read
is the most complete and analytical investigation of this sighting ever
published. (Numbers in parentheses refer to footnotes at the end of the
paper.)
In mid-October, 1986, Capt. Kenju Terauchi was excited to learn of a
special Japan Airlines flight from Paris to Anchorage and then to Tokyo.
It was to carry a cargo of French wine.
There would be an intermediate stop at Reykjavik, Ideland.
The flight began on November 16, 1986, with himself and a crew of two (copilot,
flight
engineer) in the cockpit. The plane landed in Iceland and waited for good
weather. The next
day the plane took off heading north northwest. A bright moon helped with
the visibility for
the night flight over Greenland, but as the plane continued over northern
Canada the moon set behind them. When the plane reached an air route
reporting point in far northwestern Canada called "Shingle
Point" the sky ahead was dark except for an afterglow of sun in the
west. The plane reported its position to the flight control center at
Edmonton, Alberta, and continued
across the Canada-Alaska border, where it made history. UFO history, that
is.
Although this wasn't a routine flight, it wasn't supposed
to be a newsworthy event. But
something happened over Alaska which caught the attention of the world for
several days in
late December and early January, 1987. Virtually every newspaper in the
world carried a
story about what Capt. Terauchi and his crew saw over Alaska. This is the
story of that
sighting as told to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) by the crew
members and
the flight controllers on the ground.
Unidentifiable Lights
It was about 11 minutes past 5 local time, the late afternoon of
November 17, while JAL1628 (the designation for this particular flight)
was high over the frozen northeastern part of Alaska
that Capt. Terauchi first realized that he had company: there were lights
of some crafts to the
left and below. After watching them for a short time he decided they were
the lights of "special missioned aircrafts of two fighters" on
some mission. (Note: Alaska air space, being close to
the then Soviet Union, was patrolled by USAF jets.) He decided to ignore
them. But then he realized that after several minutes they had not changed
their apparent position relative to his aircraft. In other words, they
were flying along with him [1,2].
At that time the Boeing 747 freighter was operating on autopilot and
heading southwestward
(a heading of about 215 degrees) at an altitude of 35,000 ft [3]. The sky
to the right had an afterglow of sunset, but ahead and to the left it was
very dark.
The Anchorage Air Route Traffic Control Center (AARTCC) had called the
plane just about
two minutes before this time, i.e., at 5:09:20 [4,5] (or 20 sec. past 5:09
PM; exact times are based on the AARTCC tape recorded record of the events)
to report the initial radar contact with the plane, which at that time was
about 90 nautical miles (nm) notheast of Fort Yukon. (1 nm = 1.15 statute
miles = 1.85 km) (Referring to a map, the plane at this time was at the
"upper right hand corner" of Alaska.) The flight controller had
asked the plane to head directly toward
an air route reporting point called Talkeetna, named after the small
Alaska town nearby (north
of Anchorage and not far from Mt. McKinley) [4]. (In doing so the plane
would pass south of Fort Yukon and Fairbanks. The copilot, who handled the
aircraft communications, acknowled-
ged the AARTCC request and then turned the plane to the left ("left
rotation") about 15 degrees to a heading of 215 degrees. It was
during this turn that Capt. Terauchi, sitting on the left side
of the cockpit, first saw the unidentifiable lights out his side window
[2].
After the plane levelled out he observed "lights that looked like
aircraft lights, 30 degrees left front, 2,000 feet below us, moving
exactly in the same direction and with the same speed we were." At
that time the airplane was flying at about 525 kts (nautical miles per
hour) ground speed (972 km/hr or 605 mph) according to the tracking data
[3]. Subsequently the speed decreased to about 500 kts.
It is important to note the pilot's statement of his belief that the
lights were 2,000 feet below
him. He could not know how far below the lights were just from his visual
sighting. (To deter-
mine the distance below he would have to know the exact depression angle
and the distance
to the lights.) Nevertheless, his statement indicates that his sighting
line to the lights had a noticeable depression angle (the angle below
horizontal). At 35,000 ft the horizon distance is about 214 nm so the
depression angle of the horizon is about 1.5 degrees which is hardly
noticeable. The pilot's statement therefore implies that the lights were
below, probably considerably below, his horizon, i.e., between himself and
the ground, thus ruling out any astronomical source for the lights. (Note:
CSICOP published its initial "solution" of the
sighting as Jupiter and Mars. This will be described later.)
 
The captain's initial reaction to the lights was to ignore them
as US air fighters, probably military aircraft from one of the nearby Air
Force Bases (Eielson or Elmendorf). But the position of the lights "had
not changed even after a few minutes and that called our attention"
[2]. The lights of these two "aircraft" stayed at the left for a
while and then the unbelievable happened [6].
"Traffic In Front Of Us"
"It was about seven or so minutes since we began paying attention to
the lights (when), most unexpectedly, two spaceships stopped in front of
our face, shooting off lights. The inside cockpit shined brightly and I
felt warm in the face." (Note these reported physical effects.) What
the captain saw suddenly appear ahead of him and to the left at about the
11:00 o'clock position is hard to describe. A crude partial sketch of one
of the objects looks somewhat like this (limited by ASCII notation):
oooo| |oooo
oooo| |oooo
oooo| |oooo
oooo| |oooo
The vertical lines represent boundaries enclosing a dark center of each
object. The horizontal lines of circles represent flame colored or
yellowish "exhausts" flaring outward, left and right,
from the dark center. There are only four "sections" of flames
shown here, but the captain's sketch shows several more sections which
made up one "craft.". There were two totally
separate sets of the "exhaust" flame groups, i.e., two totally
separate "crafts." (This illustration
is based on the sketch made by the captain about two hours after the event
[7] and again a
month and a half after the event [1]). It was the captain's impression
that the two "aircrafts" he had seen for the first time to the
left only minutes before had suddenly jumped in from of his plane.
In his written testimony Terauchi speculated that the "spaceships"
fired jets to "kill the inertia (actually momentum!) of their high
speed maneuver." After this maneuver from the left of the plane to
the front, "the ships appeared as if they were stopped in one place
in front of us." At
this time one "ship" was above the other. "Then three to
seven seconds later a fire like from jet engines stopped and became a
small circle of lights as they began to fly level flight at the same speed
as we were, showing numerous numbers of exhaust pipes. However the center
area of
the ship(s) where below an engine might be was invisible. [From] the
middle of the body of a
ship sparked an occasionally (sic) stream of lights, like a charcoal fire,
from right to left and
from left to right. Its shape was square, flying 500 feet to 1,000 feet in
front of us, very slightly higher in altitude than us. Its size was about
the same size ad the body of a DC-8 jet, and with numerous exhaust pipes."
The pilot speculated that the "firing of the exhaust jets varied,
perhaps to maintain balance.
Some became stronger than others and some became weaker than others, but [they]
seemed [to be] controlled automatically" [2]. At the time of this
startling appearance the
pilot "did not feel threatened or in danger because the spaceship
moved so suddenly. We probably would have felt more in danger and would
have been prepared to escape if the spaceships were shaking or unable to
stop themselves." (Note that the plane was traveling
nearly 10 miles every minute so there wouldn't be much time to react if he
felt he were going
to run into something a short distance in front of his plane.) It was at
this time that the pilot concluded that he was looking at something REALLY
unusual because, in his words, "it is impossible for any man made
machine to make a sudden appearance in front of a jumbo
jet that is flying 910 km/hr and to move along in a formation paralleling
our aircraft" [2].
After this sudden appearance in front of the jet the lights moved in
formation with the jet for
three to five minutes. As they moved they rocked or swayed back and forth.
Then they
abruptly rearranged their orientation from one above the other to side-by-side.
They were still both at about the 11 o'clock position. Continuing the
description, the lights were like flames coming out of multiple rocket
exhaust ports arranged in two rectangular arrays, according to
the captain's drawings made shortly after the event and again two months
later. He compared them to "output exhaust" like the "Challenger
(as it took off)" [1]. He described the colors as "amber and
whitish." He stated that the "numerous lights" were "exhausts
on the engines" which were "lined up all the way." When
they were "blasting recoil [the] jets [were] so strong that I could
not see [the individual lights and their arrangement] because it was so
bright." However, "once the recoil blasts stopped the speed was
absolutely steady, not faster, not slower, and I could see them (the
individual lights or exhaust ports) very clearly" [1]. Besides the
lights of
the "exhaust ports" the captain also reported seeing "sparks
like a fire when using gasoline or carbon fuel." By this he may have
meant brief bursts of yellowish color.
The copilot, Takanori Tamefuji, compared the numerous lights or flames
to "Christmas assorted" lights with a "salmon" color.
(9) He said, "I remember red or orange, and white landing light, just
like a landing light. And weak green, ah, blinking. " The intensity
wasn't constant but rather it pulsated: "became stronger, became
weaker., became stronger, became weaker, different from strobe
lights" (which have very quick flashes). The lights were "swinging"
in unison as if there were "very good formation flight...close (formation)"
of two aircraft side by side. He had no doubt that he was seeing some sort
of aerial object or objects just ahead and to the left of the airplane. He
compared the clarity of the lights to seeing "night flight head-on
traffic" at which
time it is only possible to see the lights on the approaching aircraft and
"we can not see the
total shape."
Upon seeing the lights he first thought he was seeing "two small
aircraft." But they were "very strange" because there were
"too many lights" and "it was so luminous."
Subsequently he had
the feeling that "it was larger than normal aircraft." He
thought that lights were "a little bit lower" than the altitude
of the plane, while Capt. Terauchi recalled that the lights might have
been a bit higher. Tamejfuji pointed out that "it is very difficult"
to judge the altitude of "head-on traffic." He summarized his
impressions by saying., "I'm sure I saw something. It was clear
enough to make me believe that there was an oncoming aircraft" [9].
Of course, these "aircraft" were not oncoming. Instead, they
were matching exactly the speed of the 747 jet.
According to the captain's drawing each of the two
"aircrafts" had two rectangular arrays of
lights or horizontal flame "exhausts" and these were separated
by a narrow rectangular dark
area. The copilot's drawing was similar [9]. The two arrays associated
with a single craft were "swinging" or rocking to the left and
right as if they were rigidly bound together and rotating
back and forth about a central pivot point within the dark region [8].
The flight engineer who sat behind the copilot, Yoshio Tsukuba, had a
poorer view of the
lights. He recalled that when he first saw them he was looking "through
the L1 window at the
11 o'clock position" (about 30 degrees to the left of straight ahead)
and he saw "clusters of
lights undulating" [10]. The clusters were "made of two parts...shaped
like windows of an airplane" (i.e., arranged in square or rectangular
clusters). He emphasized that "the lights in
front of us were different from town lights." He described the colors
as white or amber. (Note: keep in mind the descriptions of these lights
and the flight dynamics for comparison with explanations which were put
forth months later that these were misidentified astronomical phenomena
and reflections on clouds.)
Apparently having clusters of blinking, undulating and rotating ("swinging")
lights nearly in front
of their plane and apparently only a few thousand or so feet away was too
much for the crew. After discussing the situation over the next 60 seconds
or so they decided to try to find out
what was going on. Mr. Tamefuji, who was the "voice" of the
aircraft, called the AARTCC. It was now about nine minutes since Capt.
Terauchi had first noticed lights on "two aircrafts" at
the left of his plane and it was probably only about a minute or two after
the "spaceships" had abruptly appeared nearly in front of the
jet where they could be seen by the whole crew. At
the time of the call the two "ships" were still traveling one
above the other.
Here follow statements transcribed from the AARTCC audio tape that
recorded the whole sighting. The times listed below are minutes and
seconds of Alaska Standard Time [11].
5:19:15 JAL1628 - Anchorage Center, Japan Air 1628, ah, do you have
any traffic, ah, seven (eleven?) o'clock above?
5:19:24 AARTCC - JAL1628 heavy, say again...
5:19:28 JAL1628 - Do you have any traffic in front of us?
It appears that Tamefuji's reference to "seven" o'clock in the
tape transcription is an error either by Mr. Tamefuji (who had to speak
English to communicate with the AARTCC) or by the transcriber. The seven
o'clock position is far to the left and nearly behind the airplane where
Tamefuji couldn't have seen the lights. I assume that the correct
direction was eleven o'clock.)
It is interesting to note that Tamefuji asked for "traffic .... above"
indicating that at that time he placed the lights at an altitude above the
747 jet, even though when he was interviewed a month and a half later he
recalled the lights being below the jet. The suggestion that the lights
were a bit above agrees with the captain's recollection.
5:19:32 AARTCC - JAL1628 heavy, roger.
5:19:36 JAL1628 - Ah, roger and, ah, we [have] in sight, ah, two
traffic (sic), ah, in front of us one mile about.
At the time of the event Tamefuji estimated the distance to the lights as
being "one mile, about" which is quite a bit greater than the
"500 to 1000 feet" that Capt. Terauchi recalled in his testimony
written about a month and a half later.
5:19:49 AARTCC - JAL1628, roger, do you have.., ah, can you identify
the aircraft?
5:19:58 JAL1628 - Ah, we are not sure, but we have traffic in
sight now.
5:20:04 AARTCC - JAL1628 heavy, Roger. Maintain visual contact
with your traffic and, ah, can you say the altitude of the traffic?
5:20:14 JAL1628 - Uh, almost [at] the same altitude.
5:20:21 AARTCC - JAL 1628 Roger. Would you like a higher or lower
altitude?
5:20:27 JAL1628 - Ah, no, negative. JAL1628.
About a minute elapsed and then the AARTCC tried again to learn the
identity of the "traffic."
5:21:19 AARTCC - JAL1628 heavy, see if you are able to identify the
type of aircraft, ah, and see if you can tell whether it's military or
civilian.
5:21:35 JAL1628 - JAL1628. We cannot identify the type, ah, but we
can see, ah, navigation lights and ah, strobe lights.
5:21:48 AARTCC - Roger, sir. Say the color of the strobe and
beacon lights.
5:21:56 JAL1628 - The color is, ah, white and yellow, I think.
5:22:03 AARTCC - White and yellow. Thank you.
The reference to navigation and strobe lights conflicts somewhat with the
description given subsequently of multiple pulsating lights. It is
unfortunate that the crew was not fluent in English (many of the words on
the AARTCC tape are barely distinguishible) because, no doubt, the crew
could have provided much more accurate descriptions during the sighting. I
suspect that
the poor description of the colors (white and yellow) was a result of the
copilot not knowing
the English words for the actual colors he was seeing and thereby being
forced to use the
closest word he knew. In the subsequent interviews with a translator the
colors mentioned
were yellow, amber and green. The colors yellow and amber are not
conventional colors for aircraft (red, white, green are conventional) but
they might be consistent with "rocket exhaust" which is what the
captain compared them to in his interview and written testimony [1, 2].
By this time the personnel of the AARTCC were aware of the JAL report
of traffic and the watch supervisor entered the following into the Daily
Record of Facility Operation:
"5:21 PM. JL1628, HB747, BIKF-ANC reported traffic at his
altitude (FL350) one mile with a white and yellow strobe. AAL ROC and
EDF ROCC notified. No known traffic identified."
It should be noted that in the above statement the reference to Alaskan
Airlines Regional Operation Center should probably have been Japan Air
Lines ROC. Also, the Elmendorf
(EDF) Regional Operational Control Center (ROCC) was not actually
contacted until 5:23
PM. Note also that "back in those days" the radar operators were
alert to any intrusions by Russian aircraft which might be testing our
defenses. Hence the contact with the Air Force at Elmendorf.
After flying in a one-above the other orientation for several minutes
the "two ships" changed
their relative positions. The captain recalls "the ships moved in
formation for about three to five minutes [and] then the ships moved
forward in a line, again slightly higher in altitude as (sic) we were, 40
degrees to our left. We did not report this action to the Anchorage
Center. Honestly, we were simply breathtaken." (Here the captain
refers to the "ships" arranging themselves side by side in a
horizontal "line," as is clearly indicated by his sketches.)
At some time while the arrays of lights were ahead and to the left,
Capt. Terauchi decided to take a picture of them. He asked Tsukuba to get
the camera. This incident helped Tsukuba later to remember how long the
lights had been in front of the plane. He recalled during the interview
[10], "I think I saw it for about 10 minutes after I sighted it the
first time. The reason is because the captain wanted to take pictures. His
camera bag was placed behind his seat, beside mine, and I handed it to him.
But he could not take pictures, so I placed his camera bag beside my seat
again. So I think about 10 minutes."
When asked why the captain couldn't take pictures Tsukuba responded,
"Well, his camera is Alpha 7,000 with film ASA 100. He could not
operate it well. I mean the operating procedure of the camera was not well
understood." The captain recalled the attempt at photographing the
lights as follows: [2] "I thought perhaps it is one of those things
called UFO and taking a photo might help to identify the object later. I
asked to bring forward my camera bag that was placed in the rear of the
cockpit and began to take a picture. The area in which the plane was
flying
was unchanged but the lights were still moving strangely. I had ASA 100
film in my camera but the lens kept adjusting and never could set a focus.
I changed auto-focus to manual-focus and pressed the shutter but this time
the shutter would not close. Then our aircraft began to vibrate and I gave
up taking a photo. I placed the camera back in the camera bag and
concentrated on observing the lights."
After learning the color of the strobe lights, the AARTCC began to ask
about the flying conditions ("normal") and the clouds ("below
us"). It took from about 5:22:11 to 5:23:05, or about a minute, for
the AARTCC to get an answer about the clouds because of interference
with the radio transmissions. At 5:22:41 the AARTCC told the plane the
transmissions were "garbled" and asked it to change transmitting
frequencies. In his testimony the pilot recalled the several requests for
cloud altitude: "They asked us several times if there were clouds
near our altitude. We saw thin and spotty clouds near the mountain below
us, no clouds in mid-to-upper air, and the air current was steady"
[2]. The repeated questions about the clouds caused Terauchi to wonder why
the controller was so interested in clouds. He speculated, "Perhaps
the controllers were concerned that an increased use of improved lazer
(sic) beams using (sic) clouds was creating moving images." (Here
Terauchi refers to laser beams illuminating the clouds. Of course, there
were no such laser beams in the "wilds" of Alaska at that
time....
nor are there now.)
The pilot also remembered the communication problem: "The VHF
communications, both in transmitting and receiving, were extremely
difficult for 10 to 15 minutes while the little ships
came close to us and often interefered with communication and Anchorage
Center. However, communication conditions became good as soon as the ships
left us. There were no abnormal- ities in the equipment of the
aircraft" [2]. When he was interviewed the captain was asked to
describe the type of interference he heard. He described the interference
as "some kind of,
like, ah, jamming... it was just a noise, sounded like zaa, zaa" [1].
The communications ca-
pability was, he said, two out of five possible levels (5,4,3,2,1) with
five being perfectly
clear [1]. Normally communications with a plane in that area would be good.
Radar Contact
Shortly after the copilot told the AARTCC, at 5:23:05, that the clouds
were "below us", he reported a new and sudden event:
5:23:13 JAL1628 - And now the target, ah, traffic is extinguished. We
cannot see it now.
5:23:19 AARTCC - JAL1628 Roger. And I'm not receiving any radar
replies.
It was probably at this time that the "two ships" which had been
quite close to the plane since 5:18 or 5:19 PM suddenly moved farther away
and to the left. Looking to the left the captain could now see that "there
was a pale white flat light in the direction where the ships flew away,
moving in a line along with us, in the same direction and same speed and
at the same altitude as we were" [2].
About this time the AARTCC controller decided to find out if the Air
Force at Elmendorf Regional Operational Control Center had anything on its
radar.
5:23:35 AARTCC - (to the ROCC) Could you look approximately forty
miles south of Fort Yukon? There should be [JAL1628] up there. Can you
tell me [if] you see [a] primary target and its position?
It took the ROCC operator about two minutes to answer the question. In the
meantime significant events occurred aboard the plane and at the AARTCC.
It was now about 14 1/2 minutes since Capt. Terauchi had first seen the
lights traveling along with his plane, about 6 to 7 minutes since the
lights had appeared abruptly in front of the plane, and only a minute or
so since the "ships" quickly moved away from the jet, apparently
in the direction of the "flat pale white light" [2] which the
captain later described as like "two white fluorescent-like
lights" [12]. A drawing made several hours later indicates that the
lights were horizontally oriented and spaced apart, like two long
fluorescent tubes end-to-end with a large dark gap in between them. At
this time in the flight he could only see the two white lights. He was not
sure whether the two "ships" had become pale white lights after
they moved away from the jet or if the white lights were something
entirely different. (He reported that later in the flight that he could
see the outline of a large shape connecting the lights. After seeing the
outline the captain had the impression that the distant lights were on a
very large "mothership" and that the two small "ships"
had traveled to the "mothership" [1].) It was difficult for the
other crew members to see the pale lights through the left window and they
didn't try to describe any particular orientation or shape to the lights.
They did, however, agree that there were some lights at the left where the
pilot indicated.
Up to this time the AARTCC had not acknowledged the detection of
any anomalous target on the ground radar. Terauchi recalled his feelings
at the time: "We had [earlier] said we could see lights in the 10
o'clock position (i.e., about 60 degrees to the left) at the same altitude
and wondered if they could see anything on their radar. The Anchorage
Center replied that they could see nothing on their radar." (See the
response from the AARTCC at 5:23:19.) Copilot Tamefuji recalled that, even
though the lights were now farther away, the captain decided to "search
the object by the [airplane's] radar" [9].
Terauchi wrote [2], "I thought it would be impossible to find
anything on an aircraft radar if a large ground radar did not show
anything, but I judged the distance of the object visually and it was not
very far. I set the digital weather radar distance to 20 (nautical) miles,
radar angle to horizon (i.e., no depression angle). There it was on the
screen. A large green and round object (here he refers to the image or
"blip" on the radar screen) had appeared at 7 or 8 miles (13 km
to 15 km) away, where the direction of the object was. We reported to
Anchorage center that our radar caught the object within 7 or 8 miles in
the 10 o'clock position. We asked them if they could catch it on ground
radar but it did not seem they could catch it at all" [21]. During
the January interview Terauchi recalled that the radar detection occurred
about 15 minutes after he first saw the lights, i.e., at about 5:25 PM. He
was only slightly in error.
5:24:50 AARTCC - JAL1628, do you still have, uh, visual contact with
the, ah, traffic?
5:24:53 JAL1628 - Affirmative. Also, [4] we [have] radar contact,
ah... (unintelligible; broken transmission).
5:25:02 AARTCC - JAL1628 heavy, roger, sir. I'm picking up a hit
on the radar approximately five miles in trail of your six o'clock
position (i.e., behind the plane). Do you concur? (Note: this was
probably a silly question to ask since the crew could not see behind the
plane. However, it is the first indication that the Elmendorf radar may
have detected something other than the plane.)
5:25:12 JAL1628 - Ah, negative, ah, 11 o'clock, ah, eight miles,
ah, same level. Over.
A month and a half later the captain did not remembered the direction
accurately (see above; he recalled the 10 o'clock position) but he had
recalled the distance correctly. Flight engineer Tsukuba recalled seeing
on the radar screen at "about 10 miles" a "green dot like,
not exactly a dot. It was not a dot but stream like", i.e., elongated.
He did "not think it (the radar target) was the same lights as the
one (sic) I saw in front of us." Here the flight engineer is
referring to the visual difference between the two bright "ships"
which had been nearly in front of the jet and the pale whitish light of
the "mothership." Tsukjuba described this "second"
light as "very difficult to see" and "vague," although
he did indicate that he saw it for "a total of 30 minutes."
According to Tsukuba (and also the pilot and copilot) there was no
problem with internal cockpit lights reflecting off the windows since the
internal lights had all been turned off (except the dim instrument
lights). Tsukuba was sure that the "mothership" light was indeed
outside the aircraft, but it was sufficiently indistinct and "hard to
see" from his seat on the right side of the jet that he was "not
certain whether it was lights of a distant town or a strange object"
[10]. He reported that the weather was clear and that none of his
instruments showed any disturbances.Copilot Tamefuji recalled that the
radar echo was "just like other traffic, but, ah, I thought a little
bit large." He said the radar target image was green and at a
distance of 7 to 8 miles (nautical). He said he had "many experiences
before in checking oncoming aircrafts on a radar" and in his opinion
the radar echo was similar to a conventional aircraft echo.
Several hours after the sighting the captain, who had the best view of
the radar screen, drew a picture of the radar image [7]. The sketch shows
a filled circle or "dot" at the center of a thick arc that
covered ten or so degrees of arc [see illustration]. The image was roughly
the 60 degree to the left of straight ahead. (The radar screen was marked
with circles at varying distance, 5 mi., 10 mi, 15 mi., etc., and the
image of the unknown was an arc lying between the 5 and 10 mile circles.)
In commenting on the radar image the captain pointed out that "normally
it appears in red when an aircraft radar catches another aircraft"
whereas green is usually the color of a weak weather target such as a
cloud. The fact that the echo was green on the screen led him to ask
whether or not the "metal used in the spaceship is different from
ours" [2]. One might also speculate on the use of radar signature
reduction techniques generally calssified as "stealth." At any
rate, the shape, size and color of the radar target indicated that the
object was quite large and yet quite a weak reflector.
The radar target remained on the screen for an undetermined length of
time, but probably for no more than several minutes. "While we were
communicating with Anchorage Center," the captain said, "the two
pale white lights gradually moved to the left side and to the left
diagonally back 30 degrees as if they understood our conversation and then
when they were beside our aircraft (i.e., at about the 9 o'clock position
or 90 degrees to the left) they totally disappeared from our radar."
This is not surprising since the weather radar as it scans back and forth
does not cover
an arc greater than 90 degrees to the left or right. While the "mother
ship" lights were dropping back to the left and the radar echo was
going off the screen of the airplane radar, the Air Force and the AARTCC
were having their own radar detections. At 5:25:45, after spending two
minutes looking, the ROCC radar controller reported back to the AARTCC
that he was getting some "surge primary return." By this he
meant an occasional radar echo unaccompanied by a transponder signal.
(It is important to understand the difference between "primary
return" and a transponder return. On the radar screen each appears as
a small dot or "blip" and if a plane with a transponder is
present the two blips appear together (if one is not masked out). Primary
radar, which is the standard echo-based radar, is the only way of
detecting a distant aircraft that has no trans- ponder. It is what one
would expect to use to detect "non-cooperative" objects which
don't
have transponder, such as UFOs! A transponder is a transmitter on an
airplane which sends
out a coded sign al in response to a radar pulse from the ground station.
All commercial planes carry transponders as the main means of detection by
the ground controllers. The transponder can carry more information than
just the echo, such as the plane designation and its altitude. In this
case the JAL1628 carried a transponder. Therefore the radar operator would
expect to
see two adjacent blips each time the radar beam, in its continuous
rotatory sweep mode, would sweep past the airplane. Any primary return
without a transponder return would be evidence
of a radar reflective object without a transponder. The difference between
primary radar and transponder signals played a roll in the FAA "explanation"
of the radar detections described below.)
The ROCC controller added, "I don't know if it's erroneous
or whatever, but..." The AARTCC responded:
5:25:50 AARTCC - Negative, its not erroneous. I want you to keep a
good track on there and if you pick up a [transponder signal], verify
that you do not have any [military] aircraft operating in that area.
5:25:57 ROCC - That is affirm(ative). We do not have anybody up
there right now. Can you give me the position of the primary you're
receiving?
5:26:03 AARTCC - I'm picking up a primary approximately 50 miles
southeast. But it's right in front of the (JAL1628) [4].
Unfortunately the AARTCC controller did not say what the primary return
was southeast of (I know; don't end a sentence with a preposition!). He
may have meant something southeast of Ft. Yukon, since it was displayed as
a location on his radar screen. At this time the plane was roughly 60 nm
south southwest, relative to geographic north, of Ft. Yukon. But with
respect to magnetic north (which is used on air route maps), the plane was
southeast of Ft. Yukon. (The reason for this difference in direction is
that in that area of Alaska magnetic north has a deviation of about 30
degrees clockwise from true geographic north.)
The conversation continued as follows:
5:26:13 ROCC - OK. I've got him about....
5:26:15 AARTCC - Eight miles in front of the (JAL1628) he's got
traffic at the same altitude (35,000 ft.).
5:26:18 ROCC - OK. I've got him about his, ah, oh, it looks like
about, ah, 10 o'clock at about that range, yes.
The clear implication of the last ROCC comment is that the Elmendorf radar
showed a primary return - an object without a transponder - in about the
same location as the captain reported! (Keep this in mind as you read the
FAA "explanation" presented farther on in this paper.) The
AARTCC then asked the ROCC to check on any military flights in the area
around the plane and ended the conversation at 5:26:35.
About a minute later AARTCC called ROCC to report that the "target
in front of the (JAL1628) is unknown to us" [4]. ROCC reponded
(5:27:53), "OK. We've lost contact with it now. The AARTCC controller
then went on to say, "OK. We're not working that aircraft (meaning
the unknown target) in the... (unintelligible) ..well, the aircraft
(JAL1628) still has a visual contact, only he can't identify the [unknown]
aircraft. He believes it has white and yellow strobes." To this the
ROCC controller responded (5:28:04), "OK. I'm still not, I, we lost
contact on him. I don't see him at all." In other words, there was no
longer an unknown primary return on the ROCC radar display.
During this conversation the flight was continuing along a straight
line heading of 215 degrees (southwestward) toward Talkeetna. The unusual
lights were at the left side. The captain recalled, "When they were
in front of us they were positioned slightly higher in altitude than we
were, but now they placed themselves slightly below the horizon where it
was difficult to see. The distance between us was still about seven to
eight miles visually." The airplane radar no longer showed a radar
echo since the lights were too far to the left [7].
Many minutes earlier, when the sighting began (about 5:10 PM), Ft.
Yukon was at the right of the plane. The captain recalled the lighting
conditions of the sky at the time: "When we started to see Ft. Yukon
diagonally below us at the right the sun was setting down in the Southwest,
painting the sky in a slightly red stripe, approximately two to three
millimeters (at arms length?) and gave a bit of light but the east was
still pitch dark." A calculation of the angular elevation and azimuth
of the sun shows that at the time of the intial sighting the sun was about
15 degrees below the horizon, from ground level, and was at an azimuth of
about 270 degrees, or due west. This would place it below the horizon and
55 degrees to the right of straight ahead of the plane. Thus the
astronomical calculation shows that the captain was incorrect in referring
to the sunset direction as "southwest" although he wasn't far
off. The calculation is consistent with the claim of the captain and crew
that the sun had set and that there was a thin reddish stripe of sky just
at the horizon to the right of straight ahead.
Under these conditions the sky to the left of the plane would have been
very dark and stars would have been visible. The nearly full moon which
had lighted the sky while the plane was over Greenland was now behind the
plane at an azimuth of about 50 degrees and an elevation of about 10
degrees. Two planets were visible above the horizon in the southeast:
Jupiter at an azimuth of about 140 degrees and an elevation of somewhat
more than 11 degrees and Mars at about the same azimuth but only several
degrees above the horizon. Jupiter was quite bright and Mars was much
dimmer. Jupiter and Mars were 70 degrees to the left of straight ahead as
the plane flew southwestward.
By the time the "small ships" had moved away from the
aircraft and the ROCC had detected some "surge primary return"
near the jet, the sun was several more degrees below the horizon, the sky
in the southeast was darker and the plane was well south of Ft. Yukon. The
captain picks up the narrative: "Far in front of us there were lights
increasing from the U.S. Military Eielson AFB and Fairbanks." Each
was about 40 miles away at this time. "The lights were still
following us at exactly the same distance. However, it was too dark to
identify by only the lights whether or not they were the same spaceships
that were flying in front of us a few minutes ago. It seemed that we were
flying on the lighter side and gave them the advantage of being on the
dark side."
That is, from the viewpoint of the supposed "mothership" the
airplane was silhouetted against the light western sky, but the crew of
the jet couldn't see the outline of the "mothership" because it
was silhouetted against the dark sky in the southeast. The captain was
able to see only the faint lights from the "mothership."
As the plane approached Eielson and Fairbanks the captain saw :"two
very bright lights" appear "suddenly from the north ... perhaps
four or five mountains away." He speculated at the time what these
might be. He couldn't identify all the normal ground lights because the
"flight above Alaska territory is generally in daytime and it is
confusing to identify the kind of lights" on the ground. He finally
decided that the lights were along the Alaska pipe line.
Continuing his narrative, Capt. Terauchi recalled, "We arrived at
the sky above Eielson AFB and Fairbanks." (Actually, at this time,
about 5:30 PM, the plane was about 20 miles northeast of Eielson and about
30 miles east-northeast of Fairbanks.) "The lights (of the city) were
extremely bright to eyes that were used to the dark." (The cockpit
lights had been turned off to eliminate window reflections of internal
lights.) "We were just above the bright city lights and we checked
the pale white light behind us. Alas! There was a silhouette of a gigantic
spaceship. We must run away quickly! 'Anchorage Center. The JAL1628 is
requesting a change of course to right 45 degrees." It felt like a
long time before we received permission" [2]. Actually it took only
15 seconds to get permission, as the transcript of the AARTCC tape
recording shows. But it did take longer to actually begin the turn.
5:30:16 JAL1628 - (very broken communication; unintelligible)
5:30:20 AARTCC - JAL1628 heavy, you're coming in broken. Say again.
5:30:23 JAL1628 - Request, ah, deviate, ah, ah, from, ah, object,
ah, request heading two four zero.
5:30:52 AARTCC - JAL1628 Roger. Fly heading two four zero. JAL1628
heavy, deviations approved as necessary for traffic. (Note: since the
controller knew that there were no other known aircraft in the sky it
was OK for JAL1628 to go anywhere it wanted to avoid "traffic.")
5:30:49 JAL1628 - It's, ah, quite big...
5:30:52 AARTCC - JAL1628 heavy, you're still broken. Say again.
5:30:56 JAL1628 - It's, ah, very quite big, ah, plane.
The radar tracking data show that by asking for a magnetic heading of 240
degrees Tamefuji was requesting a 60 degree turn to the right. At 5:31:08,
about 50 seconds after Tamefuji called for permission to turn, the plane
began to turn from its magnetic heading of 182(+/-1) degrees (about 215
degrees with respect to geographic north). By 5:32:08 the plane had
settled on its new heading of 222 degrees magnetic (255 true), a turn of
40 degrees, which is close to the 45 degrees which the captain recalled,
but less than the 60 degrees requested by Tamefuji.
The captain's narrative continues after the right turn: "We
checked our rear [and] there was still the ship following us. 'This
JAL1628. Again requesting for change course 45 degrees to the right.' We
had to get away from that object. 'JAL1628. This is Anchorage Center. We
advise you, continue and take 360 degree turn.' 'Jal1628, thank you. We
will continue 360 degree turn" [2].
Unfortunately the captain was not totally accurate in his recall of
these apparently frightening events. The AARTCC transcript shows that
there was no request for a second right turn. There was, however, a
request for a descent in altitude from 35,000 to 31,000 ft at 5:32:07
followed by a request to turn to a heading of "two one zero,"
i.e. about a 12 degree turn to the left, at 5:34:56. Later on, at 5:36:37
the AARTCC controiller asked the plane to make a 360 degree right turn.
But all of this is getting ahead of the story.
So, what was it that the captain saw that caused this "flight
response?" What did he mean by the "silhouette of a gigantic
spaceship?" The term silhouette is applied to a situation in which
the observer sees the outline of a relatively dark object against a
brighter background, or vice versa. The location of the plane just before
the turn was northeast of Eielson and roughly east of Fairbanks. East of
Eielson there are no cities, just mountains. Looking behind and to the
left, then, the pilot was looking away from city lights. This would mean
that anything in the sky at an altitude somewhat below that of the plane
would not be silhouetted against a bright backround. Something above the
horizon, however, might have been silhouetted against a slightly bright
sky since the moon (on the horizon behind the plane) brightened the sky.
Perhaps what happened is that before this time the "spaceship"
was below the altitude of the airplane and thus silhouetted against the
dark earth (and so the captain could only see the pale white lights) but
at this time the "spaceship" moved upward and was above the
horizon and the captain could now see its silhouette against the sky.
Alternatively, perhaps what the captain saw was a reflection of ground
lights off the object and thus was able to see its outline silouetted
against a dark background. At any rate, he got the impression that the
object was bigger than his airplane, so big, in fact, that in public
statements he compared it to the size of an aircraft carrier! He could
still see the horizontal pale white lights but he could now also see other
structure. In a drawing he made a month and a half after the event he drew
a shape like a walnut with a fat rim where the upper and lower halves of
the nut are joined. An exceedingly crude depiction follows:
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SILHOUETTE OF A GIGANTIC SPACESHIP 747 JUMBO JET
Imagine this "drawing" with rounded corners. The horizontal band
across the middle is where the pale white lights appeared. At the right
side of this drawing I have indicated the size that the captain ascribed
to his 747 jumbo jet as compared to the "gigantic spaceship."
Just after the plane turned to the right the AARTCC controller called
the Fairbanks Approach Radar controller to find out whether or not the
short range radar had a target near the JAL. The approach radar reported
no target other than JAL1628.
Just after the right turn the plane was flying on a heading of about
255 degrees (true) and was about 20 miles north of Eielson AFB and 30
miles east of Fairbanks. At 5:32 PM the conversation between the
controller and JAL1628 continued:
5:32:07 JAL1628 - JAL1628, ah, request descent.
5:32:20 JAL1628 - JAL1628 Request three one zero. (i.e., 31,000
ft)
5:32:25 AARTCC - JAL1628 heavy, understand. Requesting flight
level three one zero.
5:32:34 AARTCC - JAL1628 heavy, your transmissions are broken. Say
again.
5:32:39 JAL1628 - Flight level three one zero.
5:32:41 AARTCC - JAL1628 heavy, descend at pilot discretion.
Maintain flight level three one zero.
5:32:45 JAL1628 - Leaving three five zero to three one zero. (The
descent begins)
The tracking data show that the plane descended from 35,000 ft to 31,000
ft over the next four minutes, reaching the lower altitude when the plane
was almost due south of Fairbanks and just before it entered the 360
degree turn.
5:32:58 AARTCC - JAL1628 heavy, do you still have your traffic?
5:33:00 JAL1628 - Still, ah, coming, ah, ah, right in formation,
in ah, formation.
5:33:07 AARTCC - JAL1628, understand.
A minute and a half went by, during which time the plane flew on a
straight heading whlile decreasing in altitude. Then the AARTCC decided to
find out what had happened to the traffic.
5:34:38 AARTCC - JAL1628 heavy, say position of your traffic.
5:34:42 JAL1628 - Affirmative. Just over Fairbanks.
5:34:52 AARTCC - JAL1628 heavy, understood. Your traffic is over
Fairbanks at this time.
5:34:56 JAL1628 - Affirmative, ah, requesting heading two one zero.
5:35:02 AARTCC - JAL1628 heavy, roger. Deviations approved as
necessary for traffic.
This portion of the audio tape transcript shows that the captain was
incorrect in recalling a second right turn. Instead, the plane turned left
about 12 degrees beginning at 5:35:09 and it continued to turn as if it
were heading back in the direction of Talkeetna. By the time of the left
turn the altitude had decreased to about 33,000 ft. The statement at
5:34:42 that the object was "over Fairbanks" could not be
correct if the object were at the left side of the plane because at that
time Fairbanks was still ahead and somewhat to the right.
5:35:15 AARTCC - JAL1628, say altitude of your traffic.
5:35:20 JAL1628 - Ah, oh, ah, ah, same level.
Another minute passed by during which time the AARTCC called the Fairbanks
approach radar again and once again the approach radar reported no target
other than the JAL1628 itself. The copilot indicated that he wanted to
resume his flight straight directly to Talkeetna:
5:36.12 JAL1628 - Ah, Anchorage Center, JAL1628. Request direct to
Talkeetna.
5:36:18 AARTCC - JAL1628 heavy, cleared direct to Talkeetna and
in, ah, advise me of your (sic) position of your traffic.
5:36:24 JAL1628 - Ah, same po... same position.
In other words it appeared that the "traffic" had stayed in the
same position relative to the aircraft and had descended with the aircraft
to an altitude which was about 31,200 ft [3]. The AARTCC decided it was
time to "test" this unusual "traffic."
5:36:37 AARTCC - JAL1628 heavy, sir. I'm gonna request you to make a
right turn three six zero degrees, 360 degree turn and advise me what
your traffic does then.
5:36:47 JAL1628 - Right turn 360.
The plane commenced the turn at anbout 5:37:15. The pilot, in his
testimony written a month
and a half later, recalled this event: " We had to get away from that
object. 'JAL1628. This is Anchorage Center. We advise you, continue and
take a 360 degree turn.' 'JAL1628, thank
you. We will continue 360 degree turn.' It was too slow to circle in the
automatic pilot mode; therefore we switched to the manual mode and set to
turn right on a 30 degree bank. We
looked to our right forward but did not see any light." (Note: if an
object initially behind the
plane remained stationary as the plane turned to the right it would first
be seen by the copilot on the right side.) "We were relieved,
thinking the object may have left us and [we] returned to level flight,
but when we checked to our rear the object was still there in exactly the
same place" (i.e., after the turn was complete it was seen again, by
the captain, far to the left rear of the plane).
When the plane began the turn the AARTCC communicated with the ROCC. At
5:37:23 the ROCC confirmed that no military aircraft were "working up
there" and at 5:37:30 that there was no "traffic" on the
radar screen. AARTCC then called the plane again. By this time the plane
had been turning for about a minute and a half. It would take several more
minutes to complete the turn.
5:38:55 AARTCC - JAL1628 heavy, sir. Does your traffic appear to be
staying with you?
5:38:57 JAL1628 - Ah, [unintelligible] distinguished. [He meant
extinguished.]
5:39:01 AARTCC - JAL1628 say again?
5:39:04 JAL1628 - It, ah, disappeared.
5:39:10 AARTCC - JAL1628 heavy, roger. At your discretion proceed
directly to Talkeetna, J125 [to] Anchorage.
The "mothership" was behind and to the left before the right
turn. Therefore there were three possible outcomes of the turn assuming
that the object didn't just "disappear": (a) if the object
remained stationary while the plane turned it would initially "disappear"
from the left side and then reappear nearly behind the plane but on the
right hand side after 30 seconds to minute of turning; (b) if the object
also made a right hand turn but did so on the "outside" of the
airplane's turn (i.e., at a much larger turning radius) then it would stay
to the left and behind and be continually visible at the left; (c) if the
object also made a right turn but trailed behind the airplane it would
remain invisible during the turn.
The fact that it "disappeared" very soon after the plane
started the turn indicates that the "mothership" did not make a
turn on the outside of the turn of the plane. On the other hand, the
captain and copilot recall that they looked out the right hand side to see
if it would reappear during the turn, but they did not see it. Therefore
it may have trailed the aircraft during the turn. But it did not stay
directly behind the aircraft after the turn because the captain recalled
that after the turn had been completed and they were again heading
southward "we" (the captain, since he was the only one who could
see to the left and behind) "checked to our rear and the object was
still there in exactly the same place."
The conclusion that the object may have trailed behind during the turn
is consistent with a radar report made at the time. While the plane was
turning the ROCC confirmed an anomalous radar target in the vicinity of
the plane. (Note: some of the times given below do not agree with the
times in the FAA transcript. This is because some of the transcript times
are in error. The times given below agree with the FAA-supplied tape
recording of the conversations between the FAA controllers, ROCC and the
aircraft.)
5:38:57 AARTCC - Anchorage Center.
5:38:58 ROCC - Ya, this is one dash two again. On some other
equipment here we have confirmed there is a flight size of two around.
One primary return only.
5:39:05 AARTCC - OK. Where is, is he following him?
5:39:07 ROCC - It looks like he is, yes.
5:39:10 AARTCC - OK. Standby.
The use of the phrase "flight of two" indicated that, on the
radar screen, the JAL1628 had a companion. That companion appeared as a
primary return only (no transponder). Moreover, it appeared to the ROCC
that the companion was "following" that is, it was behind the
plane.
Soon after the ROCC confirmed a "flight of two," the AARTCC
resumed communication with the plane:
5:39:10 AARTCC - JAL1628 heavy, roger, at your discretion proceed
direct to Talkeetna J125, Anchorage. (Note: J125 is a flight route.)
5:39:15 JAL1628 - (unintelligible)
5:39:35 AARTCC - JAL1628 heavy, roger sir. The military radar
advises they do have a primary target in trail of you at this time.
5:39:32 JAL1628 - Ah, say again?
5:39:35 AARTCC - JAl1628 heavy. Military radar advises they are
picking up intermittent primary target behind you in trail, in trail I
say again.
5:39:47 JAL1628 - I think so.
While one of the AARTCC air traffic controllers was conversing with the
plane another one was continuing to converse with the ROCC:
5:39:24 AARTCC - OK. Do you want to, do you have anybody you can
scramble up there or do you want to do that?
5:39:30 ROCC - I'll tell you what. We're going to talk to the
liaison officer about that.
5:39:33 AARTCC - OK. Uh, it's starting to concern Japan Airline
1628, a 747. He's making a 360 now and it's still following....
5:39:46 ROCC - Where is this search [radar] return at, right
behind him or where?
5:39:50 AARTCC - Say again?
5:38:51 ROCC - Ah, I'm gonna talk to my other radar man here has
gotta, he's got some other equipment watching this aircraft. 5:39:54
AARTCC - OK.
5:39:55 ROCC - OK. We're going to call the military desk on this.
At this point the conversation with the ROCC ended and the plane was
contacted again.
5:40:10 AARTCC - JAL1628, Anchorage Center.
5:40:12 JAL1628 - Go ahead.
5:40:13 AARTCC - Roger Sir. Would you like our military to
scramble on the traffic?
5:40:17 JAL1628 - Negative. Negative.
Captain Terauchi's immediate reaction to the offer of military assistance
was to decline it. In his testimony he recalled the event and explained
his reaction: 'JAL1628, This is Anchorage center. Would you like to
request scramble for confirmation?" The Anchorage Center, this is
JAL1628.' "We would not request scramble. We turned down the offer
quickly. I knew that in the past there was a U.S. military fighter called
the Mustang that had flown up high for a confirmation and a tragedy had
happened to it. Even the F-15 with the newest technology had no guarantee
of safety against the creature with an unknown degree of scientific
technology." (Note: his reference to a Mustang flying high and a
"tragedy" may be a reference to the Mantell case of January,
1948 when Mantell flew his F-51 to such a high altitude that he,
apparently, blacked out while chasing some huge shiny object that was very
high in the sky. This was subsquently explained, with a high degree of
probability of being correct, as a high altitude balloon.)
Continue....(more photos and VIDEOS)
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