Foia Release
Unclassified Complete
733667-001-003-0033
National Archives and Records Administration
Confidence
85%
Credibility
80%
View original document ↗ hosted at the official government source
Intelligence summary
This document discusses a UFO sighting reported by the crew of a Japan Airlines (JAL) 747 while flying over northeastern Alaska. The report includes details about the crew's observations of lights in the sky, the involvement of other aircraft in the area, and a hypothesis suggesting that the lights may have been reflections caused by moonlight on ice crystal clouds.
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Jun 16, 2026
Ingestion Date
Ingestion Date for 733667-001-003-0033
Jun 16, 2026
Document Record Date
Document Record Date for 733667-001-003-0033
Jun 16, 2026
Update Date
Update Date for 733667-001-003-0033
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2,752 characters, transcribed via OCR. Errors reflect the source scan. Compare with the original ↗
promptly reported that his radar showed only the JAL airliner.
4. The flight crew's description of the white-amber lights
first seen slightly to the left (south) shortly after sunset as
the JAL 747 crossed into northeastern Alaska, and the single UFO,
further to the left, reported as the aircraft approached Fair-
banks, indicate that they looked significantly different. The
initial UFO was observed for roughly 10 minutes while the second
was in view for about 30 minutes.
5. The recently released FAA data confirm's CSICOP's earlier
report on the incident which first revealed that two‘’other
aircraft (United Airlines flight #69, and a USAF C-130) that were
in the area, searched for a UFO. as they passed near the JAL
airliner. The United flight, headed north from Anchorage
to Fairbanks while JAL was headed south to Anchorage ona
parallel airway, passed within several miles of JAL. Shortly
before the two airliners passed, the JAL pilot--looking to the
southeast--reported that the UFO was "just ahead of United," but
the United crew saw nothing. At the time, the JAL pilot was
looking in the direction of a very bright planet Jupiter, then
low on the horizon. The United crew would not have noticed
Jupiter because it was to their far right while they were
looking ahead and to their left for something near the JAL 747.
A short time later the USAF C-130, heading west, passed to the
south of JAL and also failed to see any bright light. The C-130
.crew would not have seen Jupiter, which was far to its left
because they were looking at JAL to their right.
6. The initial "UFO(s)" of Nov. 17 were described by the pilot
aS resembling the exhaust of jet/rocket engines, and he later
described and sketched a giant UFO shaped like a walnut. But
when the FAA later showed the pilot's sketches to the copilot, he
responded: "I don't see anything like this." All he reported
seeing were "like landing lights" of an aircraft.
ds Based on the pilot's report at the time of the Nov. 17
incident, confirmed by flight crew interviews, it is evident
that there were thin, spotty clouds at about or slightly below
the JAL flight altitude of 31,000 ft.--at roughly the same
altitude as that reported for the UFO. On Nov. 17 the moon was
almost full and at the time of the initial sighting and almost
directly behind the 747, low in the sky... This suggests that the
amber-white lights observed by the crew were caused by bright
moonlight reflecting off spotty clouds of ice crystals. (Village
light reflecting off such clouds on Jan. 11 prompted Capt.
Terauchi to report UFOs, and his Jan. 11 description resembled
that of Nov. 17.)
8 . If this hypothesis is correct, when the JAL airliner
overflew the region of spotty clouds, the initial UFO would