News Article
Unclassified Complete
733667-02-001-0048
National Archives and Records Administration
Confidence
85%
Credibility
90%
View original document ↗ hosted at the official government source
Intelligence summary
On November 17, the crew of Japan Air Lines Flight 1628 reported a UFO with flashing lights following their cargo jet across the Arctic Circle. The Air Force confirmed radar detection of an object near the plane, although FAA controllers did not see it. The crew described the lights as unusual and not typical of aircraft markings.
Tags & topics
Locations referenced
| Location | Context | Confidence | Supporting text |
|---|---|---|---|
| ANCHORAGE, AK | Incident Location | Medium | —_—— ‘UFO follows plane across ‘Arctic Circle, crew claims ” by United Press International ANCHORAGE, Alaska — iThe crew of a Japan Air Lines * cargo jet claime |
| International Airport | Incident Location | Unresolved | …nge sight reported by the pilot, copilot and flight engi - neer of JAL Flight 1628 remains The incident occurred Nov. 17 but was not made public until ‘a news |
Extracted timeline
Jun 16, 2026
Ingestion Date
Ingestion Date for 733667-02-001-0048
Jun 16, 2026
Document Record Date
Document Record Date for 733667-02-001-0048
Jun 16, 2026
Update Date
Update Date for 733667-02-001-0048
Entities mentioned
Full document text
2,800 characters, transcribed via OCR. Errors reflect the source scan. Compare with the original ↗
—_——
‘UFO follows plane across
‘Arctic Circle, crew claims
” by United Press International
ANCHORAGE, Alaska —
iThe crew of a Japan Air Lines
* cargo jet claimed-that a mysteri-
ous UFO with flashing white and
. yellow strobe lights followed
them across the Arctic Circle en
route from Reykjavik, Iceland to
Tokyo.
The three-man crew radioed
: air traffic controllers in Anchor-
age, reporting the huge UFO fly-
‘ing “in formation” with them and
+the Air Force confirmed an ob-
ject briefly flew near the’ plane,
Federal Aviation Administration
‘ [spokesman Paul Steucke said
Monday.
Although the Air Force radar
‘briefly picked up’a second ob-
* ject, Steucke said, FAA control-
lers in Anchorage and Fairbanks
. did not. ‘
The strange sight reported by
the pilot, copilot and flight engi -
neer of JAL Flight 1628 remains
The incident occurred Nov.
17 but was not made public until
‘a news reporter questioned the
FAA,
. \Following the UFO sighting,
the plane landed at Anchorage
International Airport and FAA
security manager Jim Derry in-
_terviewed all three crewmen.
According to the FAA ac-
count, lights appeared only a
mile from the plane as it crossed
the Arctic Circle.
“They said they could not see
the shape, onty the lights,”
Steucke said of the crew's ac-
count. “
The white and yellow strobe
lights followed the Boeing 747 for
50 miles. The crew estimated
.they were 7 miles away. The
lighting was not normal aircraft
marking pattern, the crew re-
ported. =
Derry concluded the crew
was not hallucinating and was
not influenced by drugs or alco-
* a mystery.
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