733667-001-007-0004

PILOT REPORT

AI Summary

This document details a personal account from Capt. Kenju Terauchi regarding the sighting of unidentified aircraft lights during JAL Flight 1628 on November 17, 1986. The crew reported the lights to the Anchorage Center, which confirmed no other aircraft were present in the area.

Key Findings

- The crew initially dismissed the lights as possibly being military aircraft. - The lights remained stationary for several minutes, raising concern. - Anchorage Center confirmed no other aircraft in the vicinity. - Ground radar showed only JAL Flight 1628. - Weather conditions were clear with only thin clouds below.

OCR Text

-Page 7° We ignored the lights, thinking probably they were special missioned aircrafts or two fighters because we did not notice the lights while communication (with the Anchorage Center?) or on prior visual inspection. However, the position of the lights had not changed even after a few minutes and that called our attention. The First Officer, Tameto(?), called the Anchorage Center and asked to report to us if there were any aircraft other than ours in the area. The Anchorage Center told us that there were no other aircraft in the North area. We immediately reported back that we were seeing aircraft lights. They again reported that there was no military aircraft and the ground radar did not show any aircraft but us. They also asked us several times if there were clouds near our altitudes. We saw thin and Spotty clouds near the mountain below us, no clouds in mid-to- upper air, and the air current was steady and conditions were quite pleasant. Perhaps the controllers were concerned that an increased use of improved lazer beams using clouds was creating moving images. [Personal statement concerning JAL Flight 1628 sighting of unidentified air traffic, Nov. 17, 1986. Written by Capt. Kenju Terauchi; translated by Sayoko Mimoto, FAA Alaskan Region, Airway Facilities Division. Received by FAA 1/2/87]

Metadata

Agency
—
Classification
UNCLASSIFIED
Department
National Archives and Records Administration
Confidence85
Credibility90

NARA Source

NAID
733667
File
733667-001-007-0004.jpg
Type
image/jpeg

No machine-readable OCR text for this asset. Photographs without captions may have no extractable text.

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