News Article
Unclassified Complete
733667-02-001-0016
National Archives and Records Administration
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Intelligence summary
This document discusses an incident involving Japan Air Lines Flight 1628, where the pilot reported seeing three unusual lights while flying over Alaska. The FAA is investigating the sighting, which included a large unidentified flying object (UFO) detected on the pilot's weather radar.
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Jun 16, 2026
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on quem wae WEF ware, -
'ublic interest spurs on FAA’s U
Associated Press
he Federal Aviation Ad-
_ istration has stepped up
rts to determine the
cee Of wavering lights that
ged a Japan Air Lines
zo jet across Alaska’s
it sky for nearly an hour
lovember.
We're looking at it to en-
: that somebody didn’t vi-
e airspace we control,”
\ spokesman Paul Steucke
. Sunday. “We looked at it
ut six weeks ago, but
e then we've gotten a lot
ublic interest, so we went
« and reinterviewed the.
. He provided us with
itional information.”
‘eteran pilot Kenji Terau-
told investigators Friday
ugh an interpreter that
' of the lights were small,
aiptofere. , 8
perhaps no larger than eight
feet across. He sald the third
light was on an aircraft, a
huge darkened globe with a
diameter of perhaps two air-
craft carriers placed end-to-
end, Steucke said.
The pilot said the large
UFO showed up on his cock-
pit weather radar. But images
on military radar screens at
the time were dismissed as
“clutter,” and a blip that
showed up on FAA screens
‘was analyzed as a coinciden-
tal “split image” of the air-
craft, Steucke said...
_ Radar tapes, transcribed
interviews and radio mes-
sages are to be sent to the
FAA in Washington, D.C., lat-
—er this week for review,
Steucke said.
A JAL spokeswoman Sun-
day said Terauchi was on a’ or for aircraft beacons.
flight to Europe and was un-
available. En,
Flight 1628, with a three
man crew, left Iceland on
Nov. 17 with a load of wine
bouhd for Tokyo from Paris.
Terauchi and his crew picked
up the Boeing 747 in Iceland
for the Polar leg of the flight
to Anchorage.
The evening sky was clear
as the jet, cruising at 525
knots, crossed into Alaska
from Canada, just northeast
‘of Fort Yukon. At 6:19 p.m.
(AST), as the plane flew at
35,000 feet, Terauchi said he
saw three lights eight miles in
_ front of his aircraft.
The pilot reported the
lights were yellow, amber
and green, Steucke said, but
not red, the international col-
“The two smaller ones
moved a little bit, changed
their angle. The smaller ones
did not show up on the weath-
er radar on board,” Steucke
said. “The larger one did.
‘It appeared to him it
. might be possible that the
lights might be exhaust pipes,
they kind of wavered but did .
not blink. His main concern ‘
was trying to determine
whether he was. overtaking
another aircraft.”
Steucke said the pilot re-
ported he dimmed cockpit
lights to ensure he was not
seeing a reflection.
“He flew for about six min-
utes before he decided to re-
port anything,’ Steucke said.
es can’t say I blame him for
a ue
FO investigation:
ANCH, News
Terauchi radioed of.
age FAA air controllers, whd
direct all aircraft traffic, .
The pilot reported the ob-
ject was staying with him anf
controllers told him to take
any evasive action needed.
Terauchi decreased altitude to
"91,000 feet, hut the lights
went down with him “in for-
mation,” Steucke said.
South of Fairbanks, Terau-
chi turned the plane in &
complete circle to see if the
lights would follow. ‘That
was pretty clever,” Steucke
said “It allowed him to eliri-
inate any natural phenome
non which would have stayed
stationary." :
The lights vanished, head-
ing east, when the JAL fet
was about 80 miles north of
Anchorage, Steucke said.