733667-001-003-0033
AI 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.
Key Findings
- The JAL 747 crew observed two distinct UFOs during their flight. - The first UFO was seen for about 10 minutes, and the second for approximately 30 minutes. - FAA data confirmed the presence of other aircraft in the vicinity, including a United Airlines flight and a USAF C-130, which did not see the UFOs. - The JAL pilot described the UFOs as resembling jet/rocket exhaust and later sketched a walnut-shaped object. - The co-pilot disagreed with the pilot's sketch, only reporting lights similar to landing lights. - The presence of thin clouds at the flight altitude and bright moonlight may explain the observed lights.
OCR Text
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
Metadata
- Agency
- —
- Classification
- UNCLASSIFIED
- Department
- National Archives and Records Administration
- Catalog source
- View NARA catalog record
NARA Source
- NAID
- 733667
- File
- 733667-001-003-0033.jpg
- Type
- image/jpeg
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