Japan Airlines Flight 1628: the FAA's 1986 Alaska inquiry (1986)
A JAL cargo 747 crew reported being paced by large luminous objects over eastern Alaska for some 50 minutes. The FAA closed its inquiry in March 1987, finding no evidence of a second aircraft and attributing the radar returns to instrument artefacts.
- Case number
- TU-1986-900001
- Date
- 17 November 1986
- Location
- Eastern Alaska, north of Fairbanks, Alaska, United States
- Coordinates
- 64.850° N, 147.700° W
- Shape
- other
- Colour
- Unknown
- Witnesses
- 3
- Status
- likely explained
Case summary
On 17 November 1986 a Japan Air Lines cargo 747, flying from Reykjavik to Anchorage, reported unidentified traffic over eastern Alaska. From about 17:11 local time Captain Kenji Terauchi told Anchorage air traffic control he could see objects near the aircraft; media reports quoted him describing "two small ships and the mothership", one as big as an aircraft carrier. The crew reported the objects pacing the 747 for some 400 miles as Terauchi descended and circled. A nearby United Airlines airliner and a US Air Force C-130 reported nothing, visually or on radar.
The FAA released its file at a press conference in Anchorage on 5 March 1987. Radar data re-examined by agency technicians at Atlantic City indicated that controllers had misread an "uncorrelated primary and beacon target" - effectively a split image of the 747 itself - and that no evidence had been found of unauthorised or unidentified air traffic in the corridor. The FAA said it had "no opinions or conclusions" about what the crew saw, and closed the investigation.
Investigators found the crew normal, professional and rational, with no drug or alcohol involvement. Astronomers, including Philip Klass, noted that Jupiter and Mars lay in the direction of the reported lights, with Jupiter low and conspicuously bright; Terauchi mentioned no planets. The FAA's data package described him as a "UFO repeater" who had filed earlier reports; he later said the objects manoeuvred deliberately to avoid his view.
Nearby strategic sites
- Clear Space Force Station — 94 km away