The JAL Flight 1628 UFO Incident: Declassified Files Reveal a 50-Minute Encounter Over Alaska

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On November 17, 1986, a Japan Air Lines Boeing 747 cargo freighter, Flight 1628, was flying over the desolate, frozen expanse of Alaska when its veteran crew witnessed something that would defy explanation for decades to come. For nearly an hour, they were shadowed, scrutinized, and seemingly escorted by unidentified aerial phenomena, including two small, agile craft and a colossal “mothership” twice the size of an aircraft carrier.

This was no fleeting glimpse of a strange light. The JAL 1628 incident stands as one of the most credible and thoroughly documented UFO encounters in aviation history, supported by the detailed testimony of three experienced pilots, corroborating radar data from both the aircraft and military ground stations, and a trove of declassified FAA, CIA, and military documents.

This definitive account unpacks every layer of the enigma, from the chilling minute-by-minute timeline to the alleged government cover-up that followed. What really happened in the skies over Alaska that winter evening?

The Encounter: A Minute-by-Minute Timeline

The stage was set as JAL Flight 1628, en route from Paris to Tokyo with a stop in Anchorage, cruised at 35,000 feet. The following timeline, compiled from official FAA transcripts and pilot reports (all times in Alaska Standard Time), chronicles the harrowing 50-minute ordeal.

・17:19: Captain Kenji Terauchi, a former fighter pilot with over 10,000 hours of flight time, radios Anchorage Air Route Traffic Control Center (ARTCC) to ask if any other traffic is in their vicinity. ARTCC confirms they are alone. Almost immediately, Captain Terauchi reports seeing “traffic” with “white and yellow strobe lights” about a mile ahead. Ground radar shows nothing.

・17:25: The crew reports the object is now on their onboard weather radar, approximately 7 to 8 nautical miles ahead. Tensions rise in the cockpit. Anchorage ARTCC, still seeing nothing on their primary radar, contacts the USAF’s Elmendorf Regional Operations Control Center (ROCC) for military radar confirmation.

・17:26: Elmendorf ROCC reports a fleeting primary radar hit—an object without a transponder—about 8 miles from JAL 1628’s position. Seconds later, they report the target has vanished.

・17:31: Captain Terauchi gets a closer look at the objects. He would later describe two smaller craft, glowing with amber, white, and green lights “like a Christmas tree,” performing maneuvers impossible for conventional aircraft. They dart around the 747, sometimes bathing the cockpit in a bright light that Terauchi claimed was warm on his face.

・Shortly After: The two smaller lights disappear. In their place, a dark, colossal silhouette emerges against the twilight sky. Captain Terauchi describes a “mothership,” shaped like a “walnut shell,” that he estimates was “twice the size of an aircraft carrier.” Feeling a genuine risk of collision, he requests permission to take evasive action.

・17:32: ARTCC approves a descent to 31,000 feet. As the 747 descends, the crew reports the massive object is descending in perfect formation with them, maintaining a constant distance.

・17:36: To test the object’s nature, ARTCC instructs JAL 1628 to execute a full 360-degree turn. Throughout the maneuver, the crew reports the object remains fixed off their left side, shadowing their every move. Captain Terauchi is now convinced it is a controlled, intelligent craft.

・17:38: Elmendorf ROCC again reports a radar contact, this time indicating a “flight of two” near the JAL plane. Like before, the contact is momentary and is later officially dismissed by the Air Force as radar “clutter.”

・17:45: With the object still shadowing the 747, ARTCC vectors a nearby United Airlines Flight 69 to approach JAL 1628 for visual confirmation. A USAF KC-135 in the area is also alerted.

・17:51: The United Airlines crew makes visual contact with the JAL 747 but reports seeing no other lights or objects. The KC-135 crew reports the same. For investigators, this lack of third-party confirmation would become a critical point of contention.

・17:53: The crew of JAL 1628 reports the mysterious object has finally vanished. The 50-minute encounter is over.

・18:20: JAL Flight 1628 lands safely in Anchorage. The three crew members—Captain Terauchi (47), First Officer Takanori Tamefuji (39), and Flight Engineer Yoshio Tsukuba (33)—are immediately met and debriefed by FAA officials.

The Testimony: What the Crew Saw

The crew members were seasoned professionals, and FAA investigators found them to be “normal, professional, rational, [and] not given to fantasy.”

Captain Terauchi’s Account: Terauchi provided the most detailed descriptions, including hand-drawn sketches of the “mothership.” He described it as a gigantic, Saturn-shaped vessel with a dull metallic finish. He maintained that the encounter was real and that he had witnessed technology “far more advanced than our own.” He famously joked to investigators that perhaps the aliens were after the cargo of Beaujolais wine the plane was carrying.

Conflicting Views in the Cockpit: While all three crew members confirmed seeing the initial strange lights, their perceptions of the larger event differed. First Officer Tamefuji confirmed seeing the “two strobing lights” but could not discern a distinct shape for the larger object. Flight Engineer Tsukuba’s account was even more reserved, with some reports stating he saw very little. The captain’s claim of feeling warmth from the lights was not corroborated by his crewmates, a discrepancy that skeptics would later seize upon.

A History of Sightings: FAA investigators later discovered that Captain Terauchi had reported two previous UFO sightings. This fact was used by some to label him a “UFO repeater,” suggesting a predisposition to misidentification.

The Radar Evidence: Ghosts in the Machine?

While the visual testimony was compelling, the radar data proved both intriguing and inconclusive.

・Onboard Radar: JAL 1628’s own weather radar clearly painted a green, cloud-like target 7-8 miles away, where the crew saw the objects.

・FAA Ground Radar: Anchorage ARTCC’s primary radar never showed a consistent, solid track of an unknown object. While there were sporadic, unexplained “blips,” they were deemed insufficient to confirm a physical craft.

・Military Radar: The USAF’s more powerful radar at Elmendorf ROCC did get three brief, primary hits near the JAL flight. However, the Air Force officially concluded these were likely “split beacon returns” (where a single aircraft’s radar signal is artifacted into two) or simple “clutter.”

In short, the radar evidence was tantalizing but fell short of a smoking gun. The data neither fully confirmed nor fully refuted the crew’s testimony.

The Official Investigation and the Alleged Cover-Up

The FAA took the incident seriously, launching a formal investigation and preserving over 1,500 pages of documents, including audio tapes and radar printouts. However, the story took a dramatic turn according to John Callahan, the FAA’s Division Chief of the Accidents and Investigations branch at the time.

In sworn testimony years later, Callahan revealed what happened behind the scenes. He stated that he and his team presented the data, including a video reconstructing the radar tracks, to FAA Administrator Donald Engen. Stunned by the evidence, Engen arranged a top-secret briefing in early 1987. In attendance, according to Callahan, were representatives from the CIA, the FBI, and President Reagan’s scientific staff.

At the end of the presentation, a CIA official declared the event “top secret” and stated that the meeting never took place. Callahan claimed the CIA confiscated all reports, tapes, and evidence. “I was told to forget it,” Callahan said, “but I had kept the original files in my office.” Thanks to his foresight, the core documentation survived and was later made public through the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA).

The Official Explanation: Planets and Ice Crystals

With media attention mounting in early 1987, an official, more mundane explanation emerged. Prominent aviation journalist and UFO debunker Philip J. Klass proposed that Captain Terauchi had simply misidentified the planets Jupiter and Mars, which were exceptionally bright in that part of the sky.

Klass argued that the planets, combined with the optical effects of light reflecting off ice crystals in the atmosphere, could account for the strange lights and their apparent movement relative to the aircraft. The military radar hits were dismissed as technical glitches. This “misidentification theory” was widely reported and became the accepted explanation, effectively closing the case in the public eye. The U.S. government issued no further statements.

Aftermath in Japan: A Career on the Line

For Captain Terauchi, the encounter had severe professional consequences. After speaking to the press, he was grounded by Japan Air Lines and moved to a desk job, a move widely seen as punishment for causing a “disturbance.” Though he eventually returned to flying years later, the message to other pilots was clear: reporting UFOs could be hazardous to your career. Captain Terauchi worked for JAL until his retirement, never recanting his story but speaking of it with a sense of humor and resignation.

Legacy of JAL 1628: A Cold Case Reopened

For years, the JAL 1628 incident faded into the annals of UFO lore. But with the recent surge in official interest in Unidentified Aerial Phenomena (UAP) and the declassification of government files, the case has been re-examined by a new generation of researchers.

The full FAA case file is now publicly available through archives like The Black Vault. These primary source documents confirm the core details of the encounter and the seriousness with which the FAA initially treated it. They paint a picture far more complex than a simple misidentification of planets.

Today, the incident remains unresolved. It is a textbook example of a high-strangeness, high-credibility encounter that defies easy explanation. Was it an advanced extraterrestrial craft, a secret military vehicle, a complex atmospheric phenomenon, or a profound misperception by an experienced flight crew?

The mystery of JAL Flight 1628 endures, a stark reminder that even in our modern, well-monitored world, there are still things in the sky that we cannot explain.

 

References

Wikipedia – Japan Air Lines Cargo Flight 1628
The Black Vault – FAA Interview Document (PDF)
The Black Vault – Detailed Timeline (PDF)
National Archives – Records on UFOs and UAPs (FAA-related)
American Ghost Walks – Haunted Alaskan Skies: 1986’s JAL1628 UFO Encounter

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