Foia Release
Unclassified Complete
733667-002-002-0009
National Archives and Records Administration
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85%
Credibility
80%
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Intelligence summary
This document discusses a UFO sighting involving a Japanese Air Lines cargo plane on November 17, 1986, where the pilot reported being followed by an unidentified object. Air traffic controllers tracked a radar image that coincided with the pilot's report. The document also includes differing opinions on the sighting, suggesting it could be a natural phenomenon or an extraterrestrial encounter.
Tags & topics
Air traffic controlExtraterrestrial theoriesRadar trackingUFO sightings AviationExtraterrestrialRadarUAPUFO
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Jun 16, 2026
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Ingestion Date for 733667-002-002-0009
Jun 16, 2026
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Document Record Date for 733667-002-002-0009
Jun 16, 2026
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4,802 characters, transcribed via OCR. Errors reflect the source scan. Compare with the original ↗
veered off to follow the JAL flight path at a lower altitude. Just before
the two planes passed one another, the white light disappeared. “It was like
a dream. Unbelivable," said Terauchi. Terauchi postulates that whatever he
saw was friendly. “I can't understand the technology, but it was not
dangerous. It was completely controlled." If he sees the objects again,
he's ready to try communicating. Perhaps four blinks of the wing lights,
then two more. In Morse Code, he says, that's "HI."
CONTROLLER SAYS UNKNOWN IMAGE WAS TRACKED ON RADAR--Three air traffic
controllers tracked on radar an image that seemed to be following the
November 17th flight of a Japanese Air Lines cargo plane, according to one of
the controllers who helped monitor the radar. The captain of the JAL plane
reported that an unidentified flying object was tailing his aircraft at the
same location as the radar image. All three of us thought there was a
track,™ said Sam Rich, a controller who has worked for the Federal Aviation
Administration for more than a decade. A track is what air traffic.
controllers call the radar image of an aircraft. Rich said he was on duty
for the half-hour during which the JAL plane reported spotting the UFO. Rich
said the pilot sounded shaken. “He was concerned. There was a quiver 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 (the pilot) 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 track, Rich said he called the Military Regional
Operations Control Center. “They informed me that they had the same track.
Another controller told the pilot to make a series of turns and a descent in
an effort to shake the UFO. Finally, as the plane headed south from
Fairbanks, the controllers lost track of the UFO. The FAA launched a major
review of the radar tapes and concluded that the track was a split or double-
image of the JAL plane. Rich confirmed that double images often occur on the
FAA radar screen, which relies on the 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 dozen reports of
unidentified lights from civilian and military pilota. “It's pretty real to
them (the pilots),® Rich said.
AVIATION WRITER SAYS ALASKA UFO PROBABLY PLANET JUPITER--The three-man crew
of the JAL airliner who observed a huge UFO over Alaska on November 17, 1986,
probably observed nothing more than the planet Jupiter, according to Phillip
Klass, an aviation writer. According to Klass--who was described as an
"expert" and "professional investigator"--the very bright planet was only 10
degrees above the horizon making it appear to the pilot to be at roughly his
own altitude of 35,000 feet. (EDITORS NOTE: According to the astronomy
department at the University of Washington, Seattle, the planet Jupiter was
20-degrees above the southern horizon, not 10-degrees. One would have to be
very desperate to explain away this UFO incident with the explanation that
the crew observed the planet Jupiter. To the crew, Jupiter would appear as
a distant white light, not as a walnut-shaped object the size of two
aircraft carriers. )
EX-PROFESSOR THEORIZES ALIEN BEINGS--Aliens from distant worlds may be
watching Earth and making unofficial contacts with selected humans, says a
recently retired scientist at Oregon State University. His theory is that
advanced space beings may have adopted an embargo on official contact with
earthlings, wishing to avoid the chaos that could sweep the planet if their
presence were suddenly revealed. Instead, they have adopted a "leaky
embargo” policy that allows contact only with citizens whose stories are
unlikely to be credible to scientists and the government, said the scientist
James W. Deardorff, 58, professor emeritus of atmospheric sciences. "They
just want to let us know who are prepared to accept it in their minds that
there are other beings,” Deardorff said. “They may want to slowly prepare us
for the shock that could come later when they reveal themselves." Deardorff
who retired in September, 1986, has been described by colleagues as one of
the most illustrious members of OSUs atmospheric sciences department. His
research on atmospheric turbulence and boundary-layer effects earned him the
field's highest honors, including the 1978 Rossby gold medal of the American
Meteorological Society. Yet the lure of extraterrestrial mysteries
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