Other Unclassified Complete

733667-001-003-0028

National Archives and Records Administration

Released
Published
Added to archive
Jun 16, 2026
Department
National Archives and Records Administration
Original size
2.2 MB
External ID
b4c14987cb2fa087fa26af304706292f900a2c8916cdb1ee6065d90ca882ab57
Confidence
85%
Credibility
80%

View original document ↗ hosted at the official government source

Intelligence summary

This document is a correspondence from Philip J. Klass addressing questions related to a flight path and a potential UFO sighting by a pilot. It discusses the timing of a flight maneuver and the accuracy of the pilot's memory regarding his flight route.

Tags & topics

Air traffic controlAviationUFO sightings Aviation Safetycelestial objectsPilot ReportsUFO

Extracted timeline

Jun 15, 1987

Document Date (year hint)

Document Date (year hint) for 733667-001-003-0028

Jun 16, 2026

Ingestion Date

Ingestion Date for 733667-001-003-0028

Jun 16, 2026

Document Record Date

Document Record Date for 733667-001-003-0028

Jun 16, 2026

Update Date

Update Date for 733667-001-003-0028

Entities mentioned

Full document text

1,431 characters, transcribed via OCR. Errors reflect the source scan. Compare with the original ↗

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Mr. Paul Steucke: -2- Apr. 8, 1987 Dis The 360 turn should have required roughly two minutes (using standard 180 deg./min. turn rate) and been completed at approxi- mately 0238:57 Approximately one minute later, at 0240:10, JAL then was cleared direct to Talkeetna. 6. QUESTION: At 0231:40, Controller R15 reported JAL is "one two miles southeast of the Alpha (unintelligible)..." Where/what is the Alpha f£1x?? (I have an aero chart for the region but cannot find an Alpha.) And did controller mean "one to two miles" or did he mean "12 miles"? 7 . If your original flight path is correct, then Capt. Ter- auchi's memory was flawed when he claimed in his detailed account (submitted to FAA on Jan. 2) that immediately after his first contact with Anchorage he was cleared "to fly direct to Talk- eetna." He refers to making a "left rotation" (turn) which would be required to fly the direct route to Talkeetna from his Alaska entry location. I have numbered the paragraphs above for your convenience in replying. Sincerely, SS LEO Philip J. Klass P.os I can appreciate your official position on the question of UFOs. Hopefully, controllers in the Alaskan Region have learned, the hard way, that even experienced pilots can sometimes mistake prosaic objects for UFOs. Recently heard from a Northwest Airlines pilot who flew into Anchorage on Nov. 22 who told me "Jupiter was positively brilliant--like a beacon in the sky."