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ee ___rrenTAINMIENT— Filmmak sre Trect religious th | 5,F a ——— BULLS ROMP UAA among best Dow average over || Ways to go in basketball poll 2,000 for first time || to-the boards , Lifestyles, Sports, Page C-1 Business, Page 8-4 Page E-1 pil ~ Anchorage Daily News * VOL. XLH, NO.9 70 PAGES ANCHORAGE, ALASKA, FRIDAY, JANUARY 9, 1987 PRICE 25 CENTS — Controller says unknown image tracked on radar Image seemed to be following JAL cargo plane that reported sighting of UFO By HAL BERNTON : Daily News business reporter Three air traffic controllers . tracked on radar an image that seemed to be following the Nov. 17 flight of a Japa- nese Air Lines cargo plane, according to one of the con- trollers who helped monitor the radar. The captain of the JAL plane reported that an uni- dentified ed flying object was tailing his aircraft at the same location as the radar. age: three of us thought there was a track,” said Sam Rich, a controller who has worked for the Federal Avia- tion Administration for more, than a decade. A track is what air traffic: controllers: call the radar image of an aircratt. In previous news releases, the Federal Aviation Admin-- istration reported only one controller sighting the myste- riouz object — described by .on. radar. ‘whose name has not been ~ of the cargo plane as ¢ the crew as wavering lights _ That controller, released by the FAA,.mistak- enly interpreted a split-image ni object, FAA officials said fol- lowing a. Teviere~ of. eds . Fh tapen FAA spokes-. On Th man Paul Steucke said he had- no knowledge of additional controllers who had. tracked the UFO-reported by the JAL's . pilot and two-man: Capt. Kenju Terauchi said the UFO tailed their plane for roore than 300 miles as it: crossed into Alaska air space en route are diem 8 an Anchorage: Terauchi told United Press International that he saw two brightly Lit objects and a third enormous object — twice the size of.an aircraft carrier —. follow the plane. UFO: Controller says there was something on the radar | Continued from Page A-1 | That report triggered a new FAA investigation of the inci- dent and a burst of interna- tional publicity for Terauchi. Controllers have been in- terviewed. by FAA officials, but until Thursday: had not talked to the press. Rich said he was on duty for the half-hour during which the JAL plane reported: spotting the UFO. He said the JAL crew first contacted the Anchorage air controllers as their plane flew over Fort Yukon. “They said ‘something was following them.’ It appeared to be light. And appeared to be white, orange and yellow,” he said. Rich said the pilot sounded shaken. “He was concerned. There was’ a quaver in his voice.” Rich said the controllers immediately turned -down their radar range to small-scale that would better define the air space around the JAL plane. “There did appear to be a track near the plane about where he (Terauchi) said there was. So we kept looking.” The track was not real strong, Rich said, but neither he nor any of his colleagues, then thought it might be a split image: After spotting the feack, Rich said he called the Mili- tary Regional Operations Control Center. “They in- formed me that they had the same trai . Another controller then told the pilot to make a series of turns and a descent in an effort to shake the UFO. Fi- nally, as the plane headed south from Fairbanks, the controllers lest track of the: UFO. Since the November inci- dent, the FAA launched a major review of the radar tapes; initially confirming the controller tracking, then dis- missing it as a split or dou- ble-image of the JAL plane. Rich confirmed that double images often occur on the FAA radar screen, which re- lies on computer-generated data. But the plane didn't fly through the areas where the split images normally occur. The JAL pilot isn't the first pilot to report strange things in that northern corridor. During the past decade, there's been about a half doz- en reports of unidentified lights from civilian and mili- tary pilots. “It’s pretty real to them (the pilots),” Rich said. (ie,