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eee cate tree Se ot the believers are trying to keep the possibility alive.” THE INQUIRIES KEPT COM- ing — mostly from the media and some from independent UFO in- vestigators like Richard Haines, a compact, precise, polite Califor- nia scientist in wire-rimmed bifo- cals who still pulls out chairs for women. When people called Steucke with scientific questions, or wanting to know about other pilot sightings, he sent them to Haines. During the day, Haines works at NASA’s Ames Research Center in Mountain View as chief of the Space Human Factors Office — they're helping design the inte- rior of the space station as well as new space suits. At night and on weekends, at his own expense, he tries to keep track of and explain high-altitude sightings like Capt. Terauchi’s — his hobby for 20 years. He thinks pilots make good subjects: highly stable, highly trained, highly motivated, scien- tifically inclined, and unlikely to make casual reports of strange sightings, because of the potential to be embarrassed among their peers. Plus, an airplane comes with instruments that can record phenomena — “a flying laborato- ry,” says Haines. Over the years he has looked into 3,000 pilot-sightings and ex- plamed 2,500 of them as illusions or misidentifications of atmos- pheric phenomena. “But none- theless,” he says, “I have quite a few that are very unexplained, I would say 500.” The Alaska sight- ing is one of them — but he says the only really unusual thing about it was the publicity. “Peo- ple tend not to know about the others.” Like the dozen or so UFOs that six Brazilian jet fighters chased for half an hour last May after the objects registered on radar in Sao Paulo. Or the young Australian pilot Haines has just written a book about — who in 1978 re- ported a strange craft in his vicin- ity, then disappeared, while flying in a Cessna to buy some crayfish for a party. Haines heard about the JAL sighting and proceeded to edu- cate himself about the relevant radar systems and the dynamics of the Boemg 747. He got hold of wind aloft charts and weather photography. He worked the ' phones: Elmendorf, Steucke, three hours by telephone with the help of a Japanese friend who is a pilot with a Ph.D. in engineering. When Haines asked Terauchi how the two objects he first saw had moved in space, the captain said, “They move together as if they have a common center of gravity, and they oscillate slightly with a random wavering motion.” The instant he flashed his landing lights at the United jet, whatever was following him disappeared. “‘Whaddya mean, disap- peared?” Haines asked. And Ter- auchi ssid: “The lights went out.” T WAS SOMETIME AFTER Haines spoke with the cap- tain that Philip Klass, an- other noted independent UFO investigator, advanced a widely published theory that the captain had actually been looking at Jupi- ter, and maybe Mars. It was late in January by then. For many years, until his semi- retirement last June, Klass had been the senior avionics editor of Aviation Week and Space Technol- ogy Magazine. And for more than 20 years, his hobby has been to investigate “seemingly mysteri- ous or famous UFO cases,” he says. “T have emerged — it sounds immodest, but I think it’s true — as probably the leading skeptical UFO investigator in the country, if not the world,” he says. “After 21 years, I have yet to find a case that I did not believe could be explained in prosaic or earthly terms. Because of this position, if there is an important new UFO case, I cannot afford to ignore it, if you will. It’s sort of as if Sherlock Holmes were a real person living today, he couldn’t afford to ignore Jimmy Hoffa’s complete disap- pearance or other such seemingly mysterious crimes.” : Klass didn’t interview the pi- lot, beeanse after hearmng him on | Larry King’s late-night radio show, he says, “it was evident that he is not too skilled in Eng- lish, and I don’t speak Japanese.” But his FAA contacts enabled him to “read and make extensive notes” of a transcript of the taped conversation between the cockpit and the ground. Then he approxi- mated the southeasterly direction in which the captain and crew were looking, consulted “a profes- sional astronomer,” and worked out a theory: Jupiter was extremely bright and visible in the direction of the reported UFO, and Mars was just below and to the right of Jupiter, which could explain the pilot’s initial report of two lights. “Jupiter was only 10 degrees above the horizon, making it ap- continued on next page -THE SPIRIT OF MASSACHUSETTS GREAT VALUE GETAWAY GUIDE >a = ied om as) . ¥ > ~* £ ; aS babe vee " ae = ‘phy e > om ’ é : . =~ s PLAN A ‘- GETAWAY. To find the best vacation values in Massachusetts, you'll want to turn to our new Great Value Getaway Guide. It’s filled with special savings . on everything from friendly bed and breakfasts to glittering 5-star hotels. From Boston to the Berk- shires. From Cape Ann to Cape Cod and the islands. You'll find affordable packages from one night to one week. And the best value of all is—it’s yours free. 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