733667-001-008

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RECORD OF INTERVIEW WITH JAL CAPTAIN Richard Gordon, Manager, FSD0-63 Kenju Terauchi, Captain, JAL Frank Fujii, Interpretor, JAL Sayoko Mimoto, FAA Airways Facilities Mr . Shinbashi, Station Manager On January 2, 1987, Inspector Richard 0. Gordon, FSD0-63, and Japanese Interpertor Sayoko Mimoto, FAA Airways Facilities, interviewed JAL Captain Kenju Terauchi at JAL Operations, Anchorage, Alaska. The interview was conducted for the purpose of gathering first-hand witness testimony with regard to a sighting on November 17, 1986, by Captain Terauchi and his crew of an unidentified flying object. The following text is a record of t he interv iew: R. Gordon Think what I'm going to ..• Garbled R. Gordon I have a, oh, a few questions here, and I'll be glad to let you read them and it's just some clarification because I didn't do it, but one of the people that work for me, I'm the office manager over here at the FSDO, the Flight Standards Office. And Jack Wright, one of my people came over and met with the Captain the first night • • . K. Terauchi Oh yeah. R~ Gordon Jack Wright gave you his card . • • K. Terauchi Yeah. R. Gordon Well then that's what Jack wrote down here. Well when they came I was out of town, I was in Washington DC, but when I came back, then I asked a couple questions and then the Administrator is asking some questions and I said, well we don't know we didn't ask that, so they gave me that list of questions right there, and we'll just address them along the way and then talk about them. K. Terauchi Okay. R. Gordon And it's almost reiterating what we've been through already on this thing. K. Terauchi Sometimes, sometimes. F . Fujii Reiterating questions, but, was this the first experience, Captain? K. Terauchi No, third time. R. Gordon This is the third time that ah that you've seen, where, in the same area or . • • 1 K. Terauchi No, no, no .•. um, ah I saw, um, mothership. Taipai, Kushung, Formosa, south of Formosa. R. Gordon Around, near Formosa. K. Terauchi Yeah ah no F. Fujii This Tiapai mainland China R. Gordon Uh uh K. Terauchi And Taipai, Kushung is here, so ah this cargo flight ah I took off ah 2 am midnight, after midnight, after takeoff. When we start climb we saw left-hand side big mothership, but ah •.• it was so wierd, I ignored it (did not look). F. Fujii Cause he wasn't feeling well •.. R. Gordon No I can understand that, but that was the first time? K. Terauchi Big Ship -yes and the second time ah, the, in my home I saw a sky clear daytime; ah, we can, we saw bright lights, I guess maybe ah 10,000 feet so ah .•. the light continued for about ten minutes. F. Fujii The light continued for about ten minut~s, so ah disappeared suddenly. K. Terauchi It's ah I guess this one. R. Gordon Okay now this one you saw off mainland China what timeframe did that happen, when did that happen? F. Fujii What-time was it? K. Terauchi 2 am R. Gordon When last month Interruption R. Gordon Okay, excuse me one moment, but ah ••• Okay Frank I was trying to figure out that first sighting last year or this year K. Terauchi Five years ago R. Gordon Oh five years ago, just trying to get the timeframe that we sighted these things ah, the next one was that we wanted to talk about • F. Fujii Was it the first experience for the crew members? 2 R. Gordon First time for t he other crew members, okay that's fine. K. Terauchi I think it was the first time. F . Fujii Who was the first person who saw it? K. Terauchi It was me. I saw it in - inside. F . Fujii What did you notice at first? K. Terauchi During first time we saw light, I think a navigation light. R. Gordon Ah ha, but you saw it visually first you didn't pick it up on r a dar or anything you just saw some light out there, okay and that really coinsides with the air traffic statement, you called and said do you have any traffic in my area K. Terauchi Yeah, yeah before, before, about six minutes before I saw this one so ah •.• R. Gordon K. Terauchi R. Gordon F . Fujii R. Gordon K. Terauchi F . Fujii R. Gordon ? R. Gordon K. Terauchi & F . Fujii You were watching him for about five or six minutes before you called • Before I contact Anchorage Center Ah ah, okay Okay fourth question, what did you see exactly shape, light, and all, the shape, lighting, etc. Well if you can just explain these to me cause it looks like you've done alot of drawing here so it's not necessary for you to redraw all this stuff This light was amber and whitish, but, when it came to here it wa s only amber • white light. Why don't I understand. (Japanese) right First of all it's like amber and whitish color, came closely it seems like all the output exhaust position of the jets, all these Challenger Look like something like after burners ••• okay okay, like each one of these was an individual exhaust Yes Okay So this light is special …