Japan Air Lines Flight 1628 incident
From the UAP Encyclopedia, the open encyclopedia of UFO and UAP history · 🛸 Case
Contents 4
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| Type | Case |
|---|---|
| Also known as | JAL 1628, Japan Air Lines Flight 1628 |
The Japan Air Lines Flight 1628 incident occurred on 17 November 1986, when the crew of a Japan Air Lines Boeing 747 cargo plane flying over eastern Alaska reported unidentified lights accompanying their aircraft for about 50 minutes, including what the captain described as a huge "mothership". The case received worldwide attention and an investigation by the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration.[1][2]
The sighting
Flight 1628 was a cargo flight from Paris to Tokyo, stopping at Keflavík in Iceland and Anchorage, with a crew of three. At about 5:11 p.m., at 35,000 feet over eastern Alaska, Captain Kenji Terauchi reported lights near the aircraft, which he later described as two small craft and a much larger one. Anchorage air traffic controllers said they saw a return on radar and suggested evasive action; Terauchi descended and turned, but said the lights stayed with the plane. Controllers at Fairbanks saw only the 747 on radar, and a United Airlines flight and an Air Force C-130 sent to look saw nothing.[1][3]
FAA investigation
The FAA investigated and reviewed radar data and crew interviews. It concluded that a military radar return was clutter and that the FAA radar return was probably a split image of the aircraft itself, and it could not confirm that any object had been present. The FAA described Terauchi as a repeat UFO reporter who had made other sightings, one of which, in January 1987, was attributed to village lights scattered by ice crystals.[1][2][4]
Explanations
Skeptic Philip Klass argued that the planets Jupiter and Mars were bright in the direction the crew was looking, with Jupiter low enough to appear at the aircraft's altitude, and noted that the captain's descriptions changed between his reports to controllers and later interviews. UFO researchers argue that the combination of visual and radar reports remains unexplained.[1][5]
References
- Japan Air Lines Cargo Flight 1628 — Wikipedia · en.wikipedia.org · archived copy
- "F.A.A. Presses Investigation of Lights Seen Over Alaska", The New York Times (5 Jan 1987) · nytimes.com · archived copy
- "Scientists Explain Alleged UFO Sighting by Japanese Pilot over Alaska", AP News · apnews.com · archived copy
- FAA documents on JAL 1628 — The Black Vault · documents.theblackvault.com · archived copy
- Philip Klass, "JAL 1628: Capt. Terauchi's Marvelous 'Spaceship'", Skeptical Inquirer · skepticalinquirer.org · archived copy
This page was last edited on 31 October 2026. Articles are written in our own words from the sources listed under References; disputed claims are attributed to the people who made them.
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