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Q News: US. Department aiice crn , ice of Public Affairs of Transportation Alaskan Region Federal Aviation oe eet Box 14 Administration i007) SP eeee 99913 FOR RELEASE ON CONTACT: PAUL STEUCKE MARCH 5, 1987 #37 -09 FAA RELEASES DOCUMENTS ON REPORTED UFO SIGHTING LAST NOVEMBER The Federal Aviation Administration today released documents relating to the reported sighting of an unidentified flying object (UFO) over Alaska by a Japan Air Lines flight crew on November 17, 1986, saying it was unable to confirm the event. The material was issued by FAA's Regional Office in Anchorage, Alaska, and included transcripts of pilot-controller communications, interviews with controllers and the flight crew, radar plots and other data. FAA's Regional Public Affairs Officer Paul Steucke pointed out that FAA normally does not investigate UFO sightings but pursued the JAL incident in its role as the operator of the air traffic control system. He said the agency's objective was to determine if there was an unreported aircraft in the vicinity of the JAL flight that could present a safety hazard. As part of the inquiry, Steucke said, radar data of the JAL flight track was reviewed by FAA experts at the agency's Technical Center in Atlantic City, N.J., using identical equipment. They determined that a second radar target near the JAL flight at the time of the reported sighting was not another aircraft but rather a split radar return from the JAL Boeing 747. Technically, this is known as an "uncorrelated primary and beacon target return." it means that the primary radar signal reflected off the aircraft's surface did not correlate exactly with the pulse emitted by the aircraft's radar beacon transponder. This phenomenon is not unusual and gives the impression of two separate radar targets. Steucke also noted that FAA controllers who monitored the JAL aircraft said in their statements that they thought there might have been another aircraft because of the dual radar targets. However, a northbound United Air Lines jet that was diverted by controllers to intercept the JAL flight path did establish visual contact with that aircraft but the pilots saw nothing else. The Nov. 17 UFO sighting was reported by JAL Captain Kenjyu Terauchi on a cargo flight over the polar cap from Iceland to Japan via Anchorage. Captain Terauchi said he had visual contact from approximately the U.S.-Canadian border to south of Fairbanks. On Jan. 11, 1987, Captain Terauchi also reported another sighting in the same general area as the first. Steucke said FAA is satisfied that the safety of the air traffic control system was not compromised by the Nov. 17 incident and plans no further investigation of the circumstances. # # iF