Pilot Report
Unclassified Complete
733667-02-001-0003
National Archives and Records Administration
Confidence
85%
Credibility
90%
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Intelligence summary
This document recounts the experiences of Japan Airlines pilot Kenju Terauchi during a flight over Alaska on November 17, where he observed mysterious lights and objects in the sky, leading him to believe they were extraterrestrial in origin. Despite some speculation that the lights were reflections from ice crystals, Terauchi remains convinced of their otherworldly nature.
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Jun 16, 2026
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FLIGHT TO REMEMBER:
|__ Continued from Page At |
after that first sighting of
ts are some of the most
blzarre in Alaska aviation
_ history. Since first becoming
Public in late December, the
reports have transformed this
soft-spoken, 47-year-old, An-
chorage-based pilot into an
international celebrity, inter-
viewed by People magazine,
Tokyo television and more
a dozen other national
and international publica-
tions,
Terauch! has lived quietly
fo a comfortable house in
Anchorage, his base for the
lest three years. He spends
several weeks 2 month flying
polar routes between Europe
and Alaska. During his time
off, he enjoys fishing for red
and allver salmon.
» This week, Terauchi 1s
home . His phone rings
Es th reporters eager to
about his strange No-
vember flight,
‘Terauchi has an impressive
So eal weleht ty ee
we w Ta’
incredible tale. He hes 29
years experience. He
says he hasn't often navigated:
the Iceland-Greeniand-An-
chorage route, but he has rou-
tnely flown other trana-polar
foutes. o o-
Until November, Terauchi
7 says, he never believed in
i UFOs. Now, he does. He
: thinks they’re sent by visitors
. from outer space. In fact, last
sunday, Teenenl gale re-
Ho po Mysterious ts of a
‘Spaceship during a flight to
‘ Anchorage,
" | ,This time, however, he ad-
"’ ,Inits he made a mistake. He
‘© “Ow concedes that there was a
f. , more terrestrial explanation
"3 * to what he saw. He agrees
es.with Federal Aviation Ad-
ministration officials who
Co-
arate
speculated that the second
sightings were the lights of
villages reflected off ice crys-
tals in the atmosphere.
But Terauchi remains con-
vinced that the lights he saw
in November were spaceships
of some unknown, extra-ter-
restrial origin. In interview |
after interview, he methodi-
cally makes his case, charting
the events of the sighting on
flight maps of the arctic sky.
One day, he’s convinced
someone else will see the
crafts, and his account will
take on hew meaning. “I
think we have to keep this
record....'"
Terauchi's encounter began
with his sighting of the two
belts of amber lights. To
check them out, he radioed
Anchorage air traffic control-
lers, The controllers replied
that no military or civilian,
flights were in the vicinity:
@ two belts of light con-
tinued to dance in front of the
plane. Terauchi grabbed for
his camera, ie chgeeeet Pg
taking a ‘picture wou
futile Pua ‘there was pet
enough t to expose the
film properly. .
Five ainites after the
lights first appeared in front
of the plane, they suddenly
moved farther out ahead of
the plane, he said. He could
then make out the shapes of
the crafts — cylinders
wrapped in lateral lines of
light that extended from a
darker centéer..The lines ap-
peared to be exhaust outlets,
and they alternately pulsated
t from the two sides of
@ cylinder, They appeared
to be controlled by comput-
ers, he said. As the two ob-
jects reversed direction, the
exhaust lights appeared to
flare brighter,
lot Tamefuji, in a sep-
terview, also reported
Veteran JAL pilot recounts sighting of strange company
Above is an Iilustration based on a description Japan Alr Lines pilot Kenju Teraucht provided
* + Buatration by Wiliam Hays
Ulustrator William Hays. it shows two smaller craft Tereuchl says hovared in front of the
cockpit window of his 747 cargo plan-on Nov. 17. At adi
ag they moved closer, square (ac cre-wn here). He
direction of the darker panel In the mile, which he
with glowing orango ombers.
seeing the two strange lights.
“I saw several lights in front
of us, and then I couldn’t see
them, and the captain told me
they were on the left-hand
alde,” he said. .
After about 15 minutes, the
first two Hghts disappeared,
Terauchi said. Then, on his’
left, he saw a big band of
glowing white light, similar
to the’ light emitted by a
fluorescent bulb. He turned
on his weather radar and
tuned it to a 20-mile radius.
At eight miles, on the left
side of the screen, the radar
showed a tiny ball,
Terauchi radioed the FAA
flight control. center in An-
stance they appeared rectangular and,
described the lights as pulsating in the
said said resemblog bleck charcoal dotted
chorage. Three controllers
monitoring radar saw what
they thought was an object at
about the same reference
Polnt on their monitor, ac-
cording to Sam Rich, an air
traffic controller, and Paul
Steucke, an FAA spokesman,
Steucke, however, said sub-
sequent examination of the
radar tape showed the object
to be a split-image of the JAL
plane. Rich said none of the
controllers, at the time,
thought that was the case.
As the plane flew over
Fairbanks, the lights of the
city gave Teraucht a better
view of the new object. He
says the band of light circled
a huge walnut-shaped object
that appeared to be twice the
size of an aircraft carrier,
As the lights of the city
faded, Terauchi again could
see only the white band of
light. To try to lose the ob-
ject, he got permission from a
controller to descend from
35,000 to 31,500 feet. The ob-
ject descended “in forma-
tion,” he said. & _
Then Terauchi, after epn-
sulting with the controllers,
made two 45-degree turns to
‘the right, then completed a
360-degree turn. The object
remained in view, ‘
As the JAL plane flew post
Mount McKinley, controllers
asked a Fairbanks-bound
United Airlines flight to try
to confirm the sighting. The
United plane veered off to
follow the JAL flight path at
a lower altitude.
Just before the two planes
passed one another, the white
Hight disappeared.
“It was Uke a dream. Un-
believable,” Terauchi said.
Mulling things over in the
living room of his Anchorage
home, Terauchi postulates
that whatever he saw was
friendly. “I can't understand
the technology, but it was not
dangerous. It was completely
controlled." 50m
If he sees. the cbjects again,
he's ready to‘{fy communicat-
ing. Perhaps four blinks, gf-.
the wing lights, then. 470"
ier
more. B73
In Morse code, he ‘says js
that's “HI.”