Japan Airlines Flight 1628: The Alaska Encounter

November Over Alaska

At 5:11 pm on November 17, 1986, Japan Airlines cargo flight 1628 was cruising at 35,000 feet over Alaska, carrying a load of Beaujolais Nouveau wine from Paris to Tokyo via Anchorage. Captain Kenjyu Terauchi, a veteran pilot with 29 years of flying experience, noticed lights off his port side that he initially assumed were military aircraft.

They were not.

What the Crew Observed

What Terauchi and his co-pilot and flight engineer reported over the next 31 minutes became one of the most extensively documented UAP cases in aviation history. The object — or objects — exhibited behaviour that defied every category available to experienced aviators.

Initially two smaller craft appeared, displaying bright arrays of lights that pulsed in patterns. They manoeuvred in ways that no jet aircraft could replicate, stopping and reversing without apparent deceleration. The heat from their exhaust, Terauchi reported, was tangible in the cockpit.

Then a much larger object appeared behind them.

Terauchi described it as enormous — roughly twice the size of an aircraft carrier. It was dark, with faint lights along its perimeter. It tracked the 747 through multiple heading changes. When Terauchi requested and received permission to perform evasive manoeuvres, descending and turning, the object matched each manoeuvre and resumed its position.

The encounter lasted 31 minutes. The object departed as abruptly as it had arrived.

The Radar Evidence

What elevates JAL 1628 above most UAP cases is the corroborating data. Military radar at Elmendorf Air Force Base and FAA radar at the Anchorage Air Route Traffic Control Center both showed anomalous returns in the vicinity of the 747 during portions of the encounter. A United Airlines flight in the area was directed to investigate; by the time it arrived, the object was no longer visible.

The radar returns were intermittent, which the FAA later used to cast doubt on the encounter. Critics of that interpretation note that many advanced aircraft — and theorised advanced craft — would not necessarily produce consistent radar signatures.

The FAA Investigation and Its Aftermath

The Federal Aviation Administration conducted a formal investigation. The FAA's Division Chief of Accidents and Investigations, John Callahan, participated in that investigation and later became a significant figure in UAP disclosure efforts. Callahan has stated publicly that a CIA briefing following the investigation ended with officials telling participants that the event "never happened" and ordering them not to speak about it.

Callahan kept copies of the documentation. He presented them to the Disclosure Project in 2001.

Captain Terauchi was taken off flight status by JAL shortly after the encounter — the airline stated it was a routine rotation, though the timing has been widely noted. He was reinstated after public attention faded.

Why This Case Endures

JAL 1628 has remained in serious UAP research for four decades because it is exceptionally difficult to dismiss. The primary witness was a senior, experienced pilot with no history of erratic behaviour. The encounter was lengthy, not momentary. Multiple crew members observed the same phenomena. Radar data, however intermittent, exists. And the official response — investigation, followed by apparent suppression — follows a pattern seen in other credible cases.

What flew alongside a Japan Airlines 747 over Alaska for half an hour in November 1986 has never been identified. The records exist. The explanation does not.