Haunted Alaskan Skies: 1986's JAL1628 UFO Encounter

An Ordinary Cargo Run Turned Extraordinary

Two Small Ships Rendezvous with a Mothership

JAL Flight 1628 was a Boeing 747-200F “jumbo” cargo jet, flying from Paris to Tokyo with a load of Beaujolais wine, making a scheduled transit across Alaska on November 17, 1986. At approximately 5:11 PM Alaska time, while cruising at 35,000 feet near Fort Yukon, Captain Kenju Terauchi and his crew first noticed strange lights in the darkening sky. Two amber-colored lights – “flying parallel” to the 747 – suddenly sped toward the plane, startling the crew. Terauchi, a JAL pilot for 29 years (and a former fighter pilot), radioed Anchorage Air Route Traffic Control to report the unidentified traffic and even requested permission to take evasive action:contentReference[oaicite:116]{index=116}. FAA flight controllers could hear the concern in the Japanese captain’s voice as he described the objects “suddenly approaching very close” to his aircraft.

What unfolded next was a 50-minute aerial cat-and-mouse game that left the crew both amazed and apprehensive. Terauchi reported that the two initial UFOs maneuvered around his jumbo jet with astounding agility – “shooting off lights” and darting erratically, as if exhibiting some form of intelligence or control. The objects’ lights were described as a kind of “Christmas” display of flashing red, green, white, and amber colors. At one point, the two small UFOs appeared directly in front of the 747’s cockpit, pacing just 500 feet ahead of the plane’s nose, which lit up the cockpit with a glow. Terauchi later mused that the smaller craft seemed to be “scouting” his plane – flying in what he called a “close formation” around the Boeing 747. He was adamant that they were not stars or planets: “they were so luminous… blinking, blinking… moving in one close formation”.

Then came the most dramatic appearance: the so-called “mothership.” While the two smaller objects eventually fell back, Terauchi and his co-pilot noticed a gigantic dark shape looming off to the left. In silhouette against the moonlit evening sky, the object had a distinct shape that the captain could only compare to a surreal, flying walnut. It had a flattened oval form with bulging top and bottom – an unusual shape the pilot sketched in his notebook and later showed to investigators. Captain Terauchi estimated this craft to be enormous – “two times bigger than an aircraft carrier” in length. Given that an aircraft carrier is about 1,000 feet long, this UFO would have been roughly the size of a city block in the sky!

All three crew members (Capt. Terauchi, co-pilot Takanori Tamefuji, and flight engineer Yoshio Tsukuba) witnessed the strange formations of lights and the huge dark ship. They reported no turbulence or direct physical effects, but were intensely aware of being watched or “tracked” by something unknown. Despite the bizarre situation, the pilots remained calm and followed procedures diligently. Anchorage Center instructed Flight 1628 to perform evasive maneuvers – first a descent from 35,000 to 31,000 feet, and later a full 360-degree turn – in hopes of shaking off the object. Terauchi complied, rolling the giant jet into a wide turn and descent. Yet the UFOs matched his maneuvers: “They were still following us,” he reported in disbelief. The strange craft shadowed the 747 through each turn; one of the objects even popped up directly in front of the plane again after the 360° turn, as if to demonstrate its agility.

During this time, the crew could occasionally make out the outline of the larger UFO when starlight or moonlight hit it from behind. At one point, Capt. Terauchi noted that the “mothership” positioned itself in a way that earthly light (from the moon) silhouetted its massive shape – that’s when he realized just how enormous it truly was. The structure had no discernible wings or tail. It seemed to be a huge, solid object with surface features or panels; Terauchi described a kind of pattern on its surface and what looked like “turrets” or circular indentations (as he drew in his sketch) – though it was hard to tell in the dark sky. The smaller UFOs, by contrast, were primarily seen as clusters of intense lights moving in unison. Co-pilot Tamefuji later likened those lights to a formation of aircraft “flying like geese,” swinging back and forth in tandem.

For over thirty minutes, Flight 1628 was not alone in the sky. By around 5:40 PM, as the 747 approached the Fairbanks vicinity, the situation had drawn serious attention on the ground. Anchorage Center controllers were monitoring the flight closely, and the FAA had also alerted a nearby Air Force radar station (at Elmendorf AFB) to look for any unknown targets. Terauchi later quipped that he was so concerned about the objects that at one point he thought of the cargo: “We were carrying Beaujolais, a very famous wine… Maybe [the UFO crew] want to drink it”. It was a bit of gallows humor from a pilot who knew that reporting a UFO could invite skepticism. In fact, Terauchi would recall that some colleagues laughed off the incident – until the radar data emerged (more on that below). Through it all, the captain and his crew stayed focused: “We weren’t frightened,” he said. “We just wanted to escape from this”.

Finally, as Flight 1628 neared the skies above Anchorage, the mysterious objects departed as strangely as they had arrived. A United Airlines passenger jet (UA 69) was departing Anchorage and coming into the vicinity to potentially assist in confirming the sighting. At almost that moment, the huge UFO and its escorts vanished. Terauchi exclaimed that “the spaceship disappeared suddenly, and there was nothing but the light of the moon”:contentReference[oaicite:140]{index=140}. The timing was so coincidental that one of the crew half-joked that perhaps the approaching United flight scared “them” off. The incident was over – leaving the JAL crew equal parts relieved and awestruck. They landed safely at Anchorage International Airport at about 6:20 PM, immediately filing detailed reports of what they saw.

Little did they know, their encounter was about to become an international news story – and a case study in the unexplained.

Evidence on Radar

One reason the JAL 1628 encounter drew intense attention is that it wasn’t just a “lights in the sky” tale. Multiple radar systems had seemingly caught glimpses of the unknown intruder. On the plane itself, during the encounter, flight engineer Tsukuba noticed a blip on the 747’s weather radar – an object directly in front of them at about 8 miles distance. That was alarming, since no other traffic was supposed to be in their airspace. On the ground, at Anchorage Air Route Traffic Control Center, at least three controllers on duty later affirmed that they briefly tracked an unknown target in proximity to JAL 1628’s radar return. One controller, Phil Henley, initially thought it might be a military aircraft “shadowing” the JAL flight – not an uncommon practice during the Cold War, when Soviet spy planes or U.S. fighters might quietly tag along with civilian flights. Henley’s supervisor even alerted U.S. Customs in case an aircraft without a transponder was trying to slip into Anchorage behind the JAL 747. For a short time, radar in Anchorage did show a second target trailing JAL 1628 – and at one point, appearing almost next to it, only 5 miles away – before that target disappeared from the screen.

Simultaneously, U.S. Air Force radar at Elmendorf (just outside Anchorage) was directed to scan for the object. They, too, registered a primary return (raw radar echo) of something unidentified near the JAL flight – but it was intermittent and couldn’t be locked before it vanished off their scope. For a brief period, then, JAL 1628 was being observed on three radar scopes at once: the plane’s own radar, FAA Anchorage Center radar, and military radar. This multi-source confirmation led the FAA spokesman to initially tell media that indeed an “unknown aircraft” had been tracked in the vicinity of Flight 1628. The Washington Post on Jan. 2, 1987 ran the headline: “UFO Sighting Confirmed by FAA, Air Force Radar; Japanese Crew Tells of Encounter Over Alaska”. The story – that experienced pilots saw an enormous UFO and even radar saw it – hit the wires worldwide, lending an unusual credibility to what might otherwise be dismissed as a tall tale.

However, the radar evidence soon became a point of contention. When the FAA formally investigated, they found the radar data inconclusive. By January 1987, FAA public affairs officer Paul Steucke started walking back the radar story. After replaying and analyzing the radar tapes, FAA officials suggested that the supposed second target might have been a “split radar image” – essentially a ghost echo of JAL 1628’s own radar return. This can happen due to technical quirks or if another aircraft briefly aligns in a certain way. In fact, FAA insiders noted a known phenomenon in which a fast fighter jet sneaking close behind a jumbo jet can cause a faint double-echo on radar that looks like a single blip splitting into two (they had seen Soviet fighters do this along the Alaska coast). Could that explain the mysterious radar contact? The FAA was leaning in that direction: “The object on radar was now thought to be an accidental split image of the JAL 747… a familiar radar quirk,” Steucke told reporters. The Air Force’s brief radar hit was similarly chalked up to electronic “clutter” – random interference that just happened to coincide with the pilot’s visual sighting. In short, by the end of the investigation, the official stance became: radar found nothing solid.

Not everyone in the FAA agreed quietly, though. Anchorage controller Sam Rich, who had been handling Flight 1628 that night, later spoke with a journalist and contradicted the public dismissal. He asserted that multiple controllers in the radar room “saw a target come and go” near the JAL flight, and that they were convinced it wasn’t just a glitch. “All three of us thought there was a track,” Rich said – meaning a real aircraft target. This internal discrepancy – controllers vs. official explanation – caused a bit of a stir. The FAA, caught off-guard by the media frenzy, quickly instructed all personnel to refer inquiries to the Public Affairs office. In an internal memo, FAA managers even reminded staff that “the FAA is not in the UFO business” and that controllers should not speculate on unidentified targets publicly. It was damage control: the agency didn’t want a “UFO incident” on its hands.

Indeed, as the press coverage snowballed, the FAA shifted focus. Rather than definitively identify what the JAL crew saw on radar, officials emphasized what it wasn’t – namely, a threat to aviation. The FAA’s final report noted that the crew of Flight 1628 were “normal, professional, rational” and that whatever occurred did not seem to involve any violation of air safety. Beyond that, the agency declared it had completed its investigation and did not intend to pursue the matter further. In a March 1987 statement, the FAA acknowledged public interest in the case but bluntly stated it lacked the resources or mandate to conduct “scientific analysis” of UFO sightings. In other words: case closed.

Behind the scenes, however, the Flight 1628 incident had already made waves in aviation and intelligence circles. John Callahan, the FAA Division Chief of Accidents and Investigations in 1986, later revealed that he personally handled the Flight 1628 case data. He says he compiled the radar records, voice tapes, and pilot reports and briefed FAA Administrator Admiral Donald Engen on what happened. According to Callahan, the incident was taken sufficiently seriously that a high-level meeting was convened with representatives from the FAA, Air Force and CIA to review the evidence (including radar playback). In a televised interview years later, Callahan claimed that after an impressive display of the radar “video” showing the UFO’s movements, CIA officials took the recordings and swore everyone to secrecy, saying the event was “never to be spoken of” again. Callahan kept a copy of the data for himself, which eventually became public. If his account is true, it suggests parts of the government did find the radar data very interesting, even if the official line was dismissal. (It’s worth noting that while Callahan’s story is widely circulated in UFO investigator circles and he did testify about it in 2001, the FAA’s public reports make no mention of a CIA involvement.)

Capt. Terauchi's Testimony and Turmoil

Central to the JAL 1628 saga is Captain Kenju Terauchi himself – a highly experienced pilot who found his life forever changed by this encounter. Terauchi was a respected veteran, having flown with JAL for almost three decades and formerly a fighter pilot in the Japan Air Self-Defense Force. By all accounts he was hard-working, skilled, and not prone to fanciful stories. In interviews and reports, Terauchi comes across as earnest and a bit mystified by what happened. He candidly admitted that after the encounter, some in the airline joked that he might have “mistaken Venus” or was seeing things. “It was unbelievable,” Terauchi told reporters, acknowledging his colleagues’ doubts, but he stood firm that something real had paced his plane that night.

In fact, Terauchi was so open about what he saw that it caused him professional embarrassment. JAL, a traditionally conservative airline, was not thrilled about a pilot under its employ becoming a UFO celebrity. After Terauchi spoke to the press in Japan and the U.S., the airline temporarily grounded him, assigning him to desk duty in 1987 until the furor died down. He was not fired, but it was an uncomfortable time for the soft-spoken pilot, who later said “I never thought making the report would cause such trouble.” Eventually, Terauchi was allowed to fly again, and he continued his career, though the “UFO pilot” tag would follow him.

Interestingly, the FAA’s investigation files revealed that Flight 1628 was not Captain Terauchi’s first brush with the unexplained – nor his last. In an internal FAA memo, officials labeled Terauchi a “UFO repeater”, noting that “he reported two other UFO sightings prior to November 17th, and two more this past January”. One of those occurred on January 11, 1987, just a few weeks after the famous encounter. Terauchi was flying another 747 over roughly the same region of Alaska (north of Fairbanks) when he saw odd lights again. According to FAA records, he called air traffic control and gave a remarkable description: “We see irregular pulsating lights... just in front of us... distance five miles... it seems to be a spaceship. Ah, uh, UFO, please check on your radar, over.”. This time, no radar return was found. When Terauchi landed, he was interviewed by FAA inspectors. Perhaps chastened by the recent publicity, Terauchi actually offered an explanation: he suggested the lights might have been distant village lights reflected off clouds, distorted by a temperature inversion in the frigid air. The FAA readily agreed with that mundane explanation and closed the January case as a mirage caused by ice crystals.

Nonetheless, that FAA “UFO repeater” memo also noted that Terauchi had used words like “spaceship” and “mothership” in describing what he saw – indicating he genuinely believed these encounters were craft of some kind, not just natural phenomena. He was even quoted as saying “we humans will meet them in the near future,” suggesting he felt the objects were some sort of extraterrestrial visitors. Skeptics seized on these points to argue that Terauchi was perhaps predisposed to see UFOs, or even overly imaginative. Famous UFO-debunker Philip J. Klass scrutinized Terauchi’s accounts and concluded there were inconsistencies. Klass and others pointed out that Terauchi’s initial radio report on Nov 17 said one thing (he lost sight of the object during the turn), while his later recollections said another (that the object stayed with him during the turn). They suggested that Terauchi may have exaggerated the story over time.

Robert Sheaffer, a prominent skeptical investigator, went further – calling Terauchi “not an unbiased or objective observer” and implying that UFO enthusiasts had made much ado about a case that, in Sheaffer’s view, “turns out there wasn’t much to it” beyond a pilot’s tall tale. Another science writer, Brian Dunning, labeled Flight 1628 “just another unevidenced aerial anecdote,” saying Terauchi (while a fine pilot) “was hardly unbiased when it came to alien spaceships”.

Captain Terauchi’s reputation took a hit from such criticisms, but many in the UFO research community rallied to his defense. After all, his co-pilot and engineer also saw the lights – and they were deemed completely reliable by the FAA. In the immediate aftermath, FAA investigators in Anchorage interviewed all three crew and explicitly reported the crew was “normal, professional, rational (and had) no drug or alcohol involvement.” In other words, they saw something up there. Terauchi himself, while firm in what he witnessed, remained humble. He admitted he wasn’t sure what the giant UFO was – only that it wasn’t a conventional aircraft or planet. He even joked in one interview, “If the USA or Soviet Union had a craft that huge, I can’t imagine they’d test it by having it play tag with a little cargo jet!” For the rest of his career, Terauchi mostly avoided discussing the incident publicly. But late in life, he reportedly still affirmed that the encounter was real and unexplained.

Possible Explanations and Theories

So, what was the gigantic object that trailed JAL Flight 1628 over Alaska? Over the years, different explanations have been proposed, ranging from the prosaic to the fantastic:

- Planetary Misidentification: The earliest theory, put forth by Philip Klass and echoed in an official FAA summary, was that Captain Terauchi simply mistook bright planets (Jupiter and Mars) or stars for UFOs. Indeed, on that evening Jupiter and Mars were visible in the southern sky. If Terauchi was unfamiliar with their appearance, the argument goes, he might have imagined the “objects” moving. However, this theory has been largely discredited by detailed analysis. Dr. Richard Haines, a NASA scientist who studied aviation sightings, points out that the UFOs were seen moving rapidly across relative positions (from 12 o’clock to 10 o’clock of the plane, and back) – something no planet would do relative to a steadily flying aircraft. “There’s no way it could be a planet,” Haines said, noting also that the objects were described as very large and at close range. Additionally, co-pilot Tamefuji’s vivid description of “clusters” of colored lights “swinging” in formation sounds nothing like a couple of distant planets! Thus, while stars/planets might explain a single light in a static position, they fail to account for the dynamic, up-close phenomena that JAL 1628’s crew reported.

- Secret Military Craft: Given Alaska’s strategic location during the Cold War (and even today), some have speculated that Flight 1628 stumbled upon some classified military test or operation. Perhaps a stealth blimp, an experimental U.S. aircraft (or even a Soviet one) was flying in that remote airspace. The crew did describe the largest object as having a “craft-like” shape and sometimes exhibiting a structured outline. One idea floated was a stealth dirigible (a quiet, giant airship possibly under development in the 1980s). However, no evidence of any such craft has ever been made public, and it seems unlikely a test vehicle would purposely engage with a civilian airliner in flight. Another angle is the aforementioned Soviet Tu-95 “Bear” bomber theory – that a Soviet bomber was flying close to JAL 1628 (perhaps as a mock interception exercise) and the crew saw the bomber’s lights or flares. But Terauchi and crew would probably have recognized a known aircraft type if it got that close (plus a Bear bomber is loud and radar-visible – not the silently vanishing object they saw). The split-radar echo that FAA mentioned shows something like this was on their minds, but again, it doesn’t well match the prolonged visual sighting.

- Electric Phenomena or Illusion: Could the crew have been seeing some kind of rare atmospheric electrical phenomenon? For instance, ball lightning or plasma reflections? This was considered by some investigators, especially to explain the “dancing lights” portion of the sighting. The region’s cold weather and ice crystals (and even an active aurora borealis that night) were cited as possible contributors. As noted, Captain Terauchi himself thought the second time he saw lights (in January) that they were “ice-crystal mirages” of ground lights. In the main Nov 17 case, however, it’s harder to attribute the large structured object to an atmospheric mirage. The crew described the huge dark craft obscuring the stars behind it and having form – not something like an aurora or mirage would do. Also, ball lightning typically lasts seconds, not half an hour. So while weather and optics could account for some weird lights, they fall short of explaining the “mothership.”

- Extraterrestrial Craft: Of course, the most intriguing possibility is that Flight 1628 encountered some kind of otherworldly vehicle – an extraterrestrial (or at least exotic) craft operating under intelligent control. This is what Captain Terauchi leaned towards, given his use of the terms “spaceship” and “mothership.” The behavior of the objects – their extreme size, sudden accelerations and stops, and disappearance – certainly doesn’t fit any known civilian or military aircraft. UFO researchers often cite the JAL 1628 case as one of the best documented close encounters in modern aviation: multiple witnesses, radar contacts, and extensive official records. No definitive proof of an alien origin exists, but for those who believe we are not alone, this case offers a tantalizing hint. Even some FAA personnel privately wondered if “maybe there was a physical craft beyond our current awareness” flying that night. It remains an open question.

Notably, Dr. Richard Haines – who had collected over 3,000 pilot UFO reports for NASA/NARCAP – included the Alaska incident among the roughly 5–10% of cases he found truly unexplained. Haines emphasized that airline pilots are highly reliable observers (trained, stable, with everything to lose and little to gain by making bizarre reports). In his analysis, the Flight 1628 UFO’s movements, size, and appearance ruled out trivial explanations. He also refuted the Jupiter idea point by point. Another analyst, Dr. Bruce Maccabee, an optical physicist for the U.S. Navy and UFO investigator, studied FAA radar data and found that an unknown target did echo near JAL 1628 intermittently – bolstering the crew’s story. Maccabee concluded that whatever was there had a radar cross-section roughly equivalent to a jet (not just weather clutter) and that the simplest explanation consistent with all evidence was indeed an unknown aircraft of some kind.

On the flip side, skeptical reviewers (like Klass and Sheaffer mentioned earlier) published detailed critiques in outlets such as Skeptical Inquirer. They argued that inconsistencies in the crew’s accounts, lack of continuous radar confirmation, and the eventual lack of corroboration by a nearby United Airlines flight and a military C-130 (both of which reached the area after the UFO departed and saw nothing) all cast doubt on the idea that anything extraordinary occurred. In their view, Terauchi’s “mothership” might have been an illusion magnified by stress or expectation, and the initial bright lights possibly Venus/Jupiter after all (with the rest a sort of perceptual mistake). Brian Dunning even suggests that the entire event could be “an uneventful flight made eventful by a pilot who firmly believed in UFOs” – implying it was largely subjective.

As readers, we are left with a classic he-said/she-said between highly experienced witnesses and armchair analysts. The truth might lie somewhere in between or out in left field entirely. The haunted skies of Alaska have long carried secrets, and perhaps on that November evening in 1986 one of those secrets briefly revealed itself to three astonished pilots.

UFO Encounters in the Last Frontier

Alaska is no stranger to unexplained aerial phenomena. The vast, sparsely populated wilderness of the Far North has been the backdrop for many a UFO and UAP report over the decades – from mysterious moving lights to objects tracked on radar. The JAL Flight 1628 encounter is certainly the most famous Alaskan UFO case, but it’s not an isolated incident. Here are a few other notable events that situate the JAL sighting in a broader context of Alaska’s UFO history:

- January 1950, Kodiak – U.S. Navy Encounters: One of the earliest documented UFO cases in Alaska occurred in January 1950 near Kodiak Island, involving U.S. Navy patrol planes. Over two nights, multiple Navy personnel reported fast-moving lights in the sky and unusual radar contacts. A Navy P-2 Neptune patrol bomber recorded a radar target approaching at incredible speed (estimated 1,800 mph) before it vanished. Shortly after, crew on the USS Tilbrook observed a “very fast moving red glow” that circled Kodiak and disappeared – they described it as a fiery, bright object about one foot in diameter zipping through the sky. A declassified Navy intelligence report from Feb 10, 1950, concluded these sightings were of an “unidentified phenomenon” – essentially an early military UFO report. Significantly, copies of that report were sent to the CIA and Air Force intelligence. This shows that 75 years ago, Alaska was already a theater for mysterious aerial intruders, raising eyebrows among defense officials.

- November 21, 1985 – The “Flying Tiger” Cargo Plane Incident: Just one year before JAL 1628, another cargo jet encountered something odd near Anchorage. The crew of a Flying Tigers Airlines Boeing 747 (Flight 73) reported picking up a “target” on their radar as they approached Anchorage on Nov 21, 1985. The unknown target was said to be heading toward them at first. They immediately asked Air Traffic Control if any other aircraft were in their vicinity – none were. The Air Force was notified and, like in JAL 1628, they could not confirm any object on their radars. The Flying Tiger crew’s visual sighting was either brief or not clearly detailed in records, and the FAA did not formally investigate this incident. It remained a minor footnote (and indeed, it only came to light later via FOIA releases). But in hindsight, one has to wonder: was some “phantom” intruder testing the skies around Anchorage in late 1985? It’s an intriguing precursor to the JAL case.

- January 29, 1987 – Alaska Airlines Flight 53: In an interesting twist, barely two months after JAL 1628’s encounter, another commercial crew had a strange experience in Alaska’s skies. Alaska Airlines Flight 53, a Boeing 737 on a routine passenger run from Nome to Anchorage on Jan 29, 1987, detected an unusual object on its onboard weather radar. The pilot and first officer noticed a strong return directly in front of them about 60 miles west of McGrath (interior Alaska). Yet, looking outside, they saw nothing but clear sky and stars – no lights of an aircraft ahead. The mystery target then moved rapidly on their scope, apparently covering 5 miles with each sweep (which implied an astonishing speed of about 5 miles per second, or Mach 25!). Startled, they asked Anchorage Center “do you have any traffic at our altitude… heading our way?” The answer: none. In fact, that area was outside ground radar coverage (remote Alaskan airspace often has gaps in low-level radar). The blip on the 737’s scope zoomed off to the east and disappeared in ground clutter near the Alaska Range mountains. When Flight 53 landed, the crew was debriefed by FAA officials, who noted their radar observation but could not explain it. A formal FAA information release later titled “Unknown Traffic Sighted by Alaska Airlines Crew on Onboard Weather Radar” confirmed the basics of the incident. The FAA checked with Alaskan Air Command – no military tests or planes in that area. This case has often been cited alongside JAL 1628 as an example of puzzling radar-only UFO encounters. (The crew humorously even asked ATC, “You haven’t had any UFO reports lately, huh?” when describing the fast-moving blip.) Whatever Flight 53’s radar saw, it never materialized visually – leaving it unresolved.

- The Alaska Triangle and Ongoing Sightings: Alaska has a reputation for missing planes and weird occurrences in an area dubbed the “Alaska Triangle” (an expansive region of wilderness where unusual numbers of people and aircraft seem to vanish). While some of that is likely due to terrain and weather, the lore of the Alaska Triangle includes UFO stories. Over the years, scattered reports have emerged from bush pilots and isolated communities about strange lights zipping across the sky or disc-shaped objects hovering silently. For example, in 1996, residents of Fort Yukon (not far from JAL 1628’s flight path) reported a silent, huge disk that passed over the town one night – no official investigation was made, but it became local legend. More recently, U.S. military pilots stationed in Alaska have quietly spoken (anonymously) about odd radar tracks or UAPs during training missions, especially over the Arctic Ocean and Bering Sea. In 2019, renewed interest in military UAP encounters (thanks to Pentagon releases) led some investigators to re-examine cases like JAL 1628 as part of a pattern of UAP sightings in Alaska’s airspace. The combination of vast empty areas, strategic military presence, and long hours of darkness in winter perhaps make Alaska a prime spot for mysterious aerial activity – if something wanted to operate away from prying eyes.

In sum, Alaska’s skies have a long, haunted history of UFO encounters, from the early Cold War era to the present. Japan Air Lines Flight 1628 stands out as a high-profile case with multiple witnesses and radar hits, but it resonates with these other incidents that together weave a narrative of the Last Frontier as a hotspot for the unknown.

The Legacy of the JAL 1628 Incident

Decades later, the JAL Flight 1628 UFO encounter remains a fascinating case that straddles the line between spooky mystery and sober fact. On one hand, it’s got all the ingredients of a classic X-Files episode: an experienced flight crew, an enormous craft doing impossible maneuvers, radar confirmation, alleged government cover-up, and media hype. On the other hand, it’s a real event documented by the FAA, with transcripts, radar logs, and credible people involved. This tension has made JAL 1628 a touchstone in ufology and a case often cited in debates about UAP (Unidentified Aerial Phenomena, the modern term) in aviation.

For believers in the paranormal, Flight 1628’s story bolsters the notion that we are not alone – that something beyond our understanding occasionally visits our skies, even in the remote reaches of Alaska. The image of a colossal “mothership” dwarfing a 747 in the frigid night sky is undeniably eerie and captivating. It has inspired segments on numerous TV shows and documentaries. (For instance, Unsolved Mysteries and History Channel specials have dramatized the encounter, and you can find detailed breakdowns on YouTube, including commentary by the FAA’s John Callahan who handled the case.) UFO research groups often rank this incident as one of the “most credible” and intriguing on record, given the combination of human and instrument observations.

For skeptics and scientists, the case is a cautionary tale about how even trained observers can be misled by unusual perceptions or technology limitations. It’s used as an example to urge better training for pilots in identifying celestial objects and to improve how agencies investigate such reports. In fact, some good came from the case: the FAA and airlines quietly adjusted protocols so that pilots could report UAP sightings with less ridicule, and radar analysts gained awareness of how radar angels (ghost targets) can spook even veteran controllers.

Within Japan, Captain Terauchi’s story was big news in the late 1980s and contributed to a minor boom in UFO interest. In Alaska, the incident has become part of local lore – often recounted on ghost tours and paranormal-themed events. It adds a modern alien twist to Alaska’s rich tapestry of legends, which traditionally leaned more to the spirits of the wilderness and tales of missing prospectors. Now, tour guides can point to the sky and recount how an alien mothership may have once cruised above, “hunting” a Jumbo Jet across the Yukon nightside.

Perhaps the greatest legacy of JAL 1628 is how it underscores the mystery that still persists around UAP. Even today, with improved radar, satellites, and cockpit cameras, pilots occasionally encounter things in the sky they cannot identify. Governments have started to take the topic a bit more seriously in recent years, openly acknowledging that there are unexplained aerial incidents (the Pentagon’s 2021 UAP report is an example). In this climate, the Flight 1628 encounter has been revisited by aviation experts as a case study – what Flight Safety lessons can be learned? Could such an event pose a hazard or should it be investigated more rigorously? In 2023, an episode of the “Flight Safety Detectives” podcast even dissected the JAL 1628 incident, suggesting that future UAP reports be collected with better data so that incidents like this aren’t left unresolved.

At the end of the day, despite exhaustive inquiries, we still don’t know for sure what shadowed that Japan Airlines flight over Alaska in 1986. The official verdict was “unable to confirm object” – a fancy way of saying UFO. The case remains a whodunit of the skies. As UFO enthusiasts like to say: absence of an explanation is not proof of aliens… but Captain Terauchi would likely remind us that absence of evidence is not evidence of absence, either. He saw something. “It was there, as real as the planes I fly,” he insisted.

So, was it advanced aliens curious about a cargo of fine French wine? A secret military craft using the Alaska darkness as cover? Or an elaborate chain of misperceptions and radar quirks? We may never get a definitive answer. Japan Airlines Flight 1628’s encounter endures as a compelling chapter in haunted aviation history – a reminder that our skies, especially above the lonely Alaskan wilderness, hold secrets that still defy explanation. It invites us to keep looking up, keep an open mind, and perhaps, on some quiet winter night, to scan the starry vault for any unrecognizable somethings dancing beyond the edge of the ordinary.