Pilot Report
Unclassified Complete
733667-001-011-0040
National Archives and Records Administration
Confidence
85%
Credibility
90%
View original document ↗ hosted at the official government source
Intelligence summary
This document details a personal account from Captain Kenju Terauchi regarding an unidentified aerial phenomenon observed during JAL Flight 1628 on November 17, 1986. The crew reported seeing lights that did not correspond to any known aircraft in the area, raising concerns about the nature of the sighting.
Tags & topics
Linked cases
Extracted timeline
Jun 15, 1986
Document Date (year hint)
Document Date (year hint) for 733667-001-011-0040
Jun 16, 2026
Ingestion Date
Ingestion Date for 733667-001-011-0040
Jun 16, 2026
Document Record Date
Document Record Date for 733667-001-011-0040
Jun 16, 2026
Update Date
Update Date for 733667-001-011-0040
Entities mentioned
Full document text
1,317 characters, transcribed via OCR. Errors reflect the source scan. Compare with the original ↗
-p 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 inthe 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]