Monday, January 5, 2009

Paranormal & Fortean : 1986 Japan Airlines UFO Encounter

I wanted to do a post about one of the most impressive cases of a UFO encounter with a civilian airliner. The reason for this is not only because I think this is an extremely interesting case, but I also feel that not very many people are aware of it due to the passage of time and lame media coverage. On 16 November 1986 Japan Air Lines (JAL) Flight 1628 left from Paris, France with a layover in Reykjavik on the way to Tokyo. The plane had two crews which relieved each other during the long flight. They were transporting 200 cases of top quality French wine. Their stay in Iceland had been prolonged due to bad weather. They were finally able to leave Reykjavik on 17 November 1986.



The pilot of flight 1628 was Flight Captain Jenju Terauchi, pictured above, who had nineteen years of flight experience. The planned route was the polar route over Greenland, northern Canada and Alaska towards Japan. The moon was bright that evening and cast a blue-white light upon the glaciers of Greenland. When the 747 was above a settlement called Shingle Point at the border between Canada and Alaska it was pitch dark. The only lights that could be seen were the lights from isolated human settlements strewn here and there in the immense Arctic desert. Towards the east there was a bit of an afterglow from the sunset. Everywhere else, the land below them was extremely dark. In the cockpit too, it was dark and quiet except for the lights of the flight instruments.



At 5:11 pm Captain Terauchi saw two lights that shouldn't have been there. He had become aware of them a minute earlier but had thought they were military aircraft, the lights were to the left and below the 747. But by now, had they been military aircraft, their position should have moved and even more, they seemed to be flying in formation with Terauchi's aircraft. He was flying on autopilot at a speed of 525 knots at an altitude of 35,000 feet. The 747's location was about 90 nautical miles northeast of Fort Yukon, Alaska. Both lights appeared to be flying 2,000 feet below the JAL plane and were keeping to the 10:00 position.



Suddenly after six minutes they appeared in a position directly in front of the flight crew and Captian Terauchi saw two pairs of rectangular shaped lights, one above the other. Terauchi described the lights later as "two spaceships from which white and amber-colored lights shot out, pulsating jets in the direction of a dark vertical field in the middle of each object." The lights were so close that they lit the cockpit of the 747 brightly. Terauchi also believed he could sense warmth emanating from them. A few seconds later the objects stopped sending out beams and started forming small circles of light. These lights would switch from bright to dim and their colors were of a dull red, soft green, white, orange and a brighter red. The objects were now estimated to be 600 to 900 feet away, higher than the 747 and "had the size of a DC-8." Five minutes later the objects changed their formation and flew side by side. Co-pilot Takanori Tamefugi said, "Somehow I was reminded of Christmas decorations." Flight engineer Yoshio Tsukuba was also witnessing these events and said, "I did not even feel threatened by their sudden maneuvers." Later he would also state, "There was something reassuring that came out of them."



The radio contact with ground control at Anchorage was unusually poor and at 5:22 pm it stopped completely. At 5:23 pm, Anchorage asked them (the flight crew) to change the frequency they were operating on because they could barely hear them. However on other frequencies there was only static and hissing. The control tower at Anchorage asked Elmendorf Regional Operation Control Center (EROCC) if they could see anything near the JAL 747 on their radar. Things were getting stranger for the flight crew, as the two objects left the 10:00 position in front of the plane. After doing this they appeared as two lights in the distance in front of a huge silhouette. Later, Captain Terauchi would say of this, "the outlines of a gigantic spaceship, and also, "I got the impression that they were two small ships returning to their mothership, which was hanging there hidden in the night sky; but the rest of the crew could hardly make out more than lights of the reconnaissance ships." Captain Terauchi could see the Saturn-like shape of what he thought of as the mothership. He switched on the on-board radar. On the screen an echo could be seen of an enormous object in the 10:00 position and at a distance of about 8 nautical miles. It was not like the red echo of a conventional aircraft. The echo was green in color that only non-metallic objects reflect. From Michael Hesemann's, UFOs: The Secret History, "Either the gigantic space vessel was not made of metal, or it used a camouflaging technique like the American stealth bomber. That would explain why the air traffic controllers at Anchorage had not seen anything definite on their radar, whereas the far more sensitive EROCC radar had picked up something which, with certainty, was no normal aircraft. And now, Anchorage could also spot the target 8 miles in front of the JAL machine, somewhat in the 10:00 position. But for the crew of the Japanese Boeing, the two objects were just two points of light."

Around 5:30 pm, the crew could see the lights of Fairbanks, Alaska, as they were thirty miles away from the city. For a few minutes the crew thought that maybe the objects were gone. The wonderment and silence of the cockpit crew was broken by Captain Terauchi's voice, "There it is again!" He had looked out of the left window towards the back and could see the enormous silhouette of the 'motherhship' better than before, because it was backlit by the bright moonlight. Also from UFOs: The Secret History: "The lights from the city of Fairbanks were reflected on the metallic stern of the spacecraft. It was a majestic spectacle. A shiver of fear ran, down Terauchi's spine: for the first time now, flight captain Terauchi was touched by fear: "Request...deviate...from...object...request heading two four zero," stuttered copilot Tamefugi into the microphone, "its...ah...quite big!" He had to repeat his request four times because the connection was so poor. Then after a minute the JAL 747 was granted permission to change course." Flight Captain Terauchi was unable to shake off the craft by changing course and even when he flew in a circle with permission of the tower the enormous craft stayed in the same position behind the airplane. The craft or whatever it was, was no longer visible to the naked eye, but at 5:38 pm the EROCC radar confirmed that there was definitely no military traffic in the area and the unidentified radar echo was still in the area of the JAL 747.

Again from Hesemann's, UFOs: The Secret History, "JAL 1628 would you like our military to scramble aircraft?", asked Anchorage. Terauchi quickly refused the offer: "Negative, negative." "Whatever it is, we should not provoke it", were his feelings. After 10 minutes, however, when a United Airlines plane came flying in the opposite direction, the apparition came to an abrupt end. At 6:20 pm, the Japanese plane landed at Anchorage. The same evening, the Federal Aviation Authority (FAA) of the United States at Anchorage started investigating the incident. Three FAA officials interviewed the three witnesses from the JAL crew as well as the traffic controller at Anchorage and the radar operator at EROCC. Four months later, in March 1987, the authorities released their concluding report: "The FAA is not responsible for UFO investigations, and since there is no proof of violation of the airspace, we have ended our investigations with this conclusion."
I wanted to do this post also because it is so well documented and the witnesses are beyond reproach. I do not know what to make of it, but one thing that I feel is certain in this case is that whatever JAL flight 1628 encountered was not ours! Maybe some aliens looking for a great deal on expensive French wine:-)? In all seriousness I believe in this case of airliner contact, that this crew witnessed something of extraterrestrial origin or ultra-terrestrial origin. I am indebted to the Michael Hesemann book for the idea for this post. I am working on many projects for the blog right now and hopefully can post about one of the new ones tomorrow, while continuing with the reincarnation series, poetry and my writing here and there. Peace and be well to anyone stopping by! http://www.ufocasebook.com/jal1628.html

11 comments:

Unknown said...

Well since the universe is infinite we are kidding ourselves by thinking we are the only ones out there. Sounds like the FAA didn't even want to know what it was. On a side note, I sure hope that the aliens had a better ship design than what the drawing shows. That's one ugly looking spaceship.

Alex Robinson said...

Hi Devin
I enjoyed the diversity of your last three posts.

Had not heard of this encounter - it sure doesn't sound like the more 'earthier' versions of ufos. I must admit I don't have a preferred opinion on who or what they are - there does seem to be a whole lot of game-playing though, without a great deal of anything to shown for it.

I hope you are very well. You have many flags on your counter now - that's cool.

Devin said...

Ricardo thanks so very much for stopping by! I agree -the universe is infinite in space-time and possibly dimensions-hehe:-)you are right-what is that the 52 Plymouth model of Et tech:-) Best to you as always!


Wise-as always so happy to see you here-I am so glad you enjoyed the diversity of these posts-I may need reader help to get know-how on how to start my next series(empires) I hope you will come by again-I would appreciate any advice-from Xdell,Anadae,Ricardo,Nina,naki,Vinz-really everyone who comments here-I am somewhat 'flummoxed':-) on how to begin-I love the flags too-I love seeing all the flags of different nations come in-my OCD has me keeping track of the dates foreign nations stop by:-)best to you as always!

Alex Robinson said...

HI Devin
That sounds like a big project - one thing that came to mind was that awhile ago my eyes (or mind) were mixing up words - one of them was 'empire' - when I looked at it I saw the word 'vampire'. LOL not sure if you can use that!

All the best

Devin said...

wise my eyes do that constantly-not only with words but also with numbers some times-actually empire and vampire could be pretty good similarities in a lot of cases-I just put the post up about the questions i have to do the series-no rush for anyone wanting to comment-I have another Paranormal series(very short 1 or 2 posts I am going to start working on tonight-maybe can post first tomorrow or next day -and also my writing an poetry-plus I found a great book that I think will help with reincarnation series-havent really even looked at a lot of it yet-much less written down info for a post but I definitely have a lot of other things to work on while i figure out how to do this-best to you and yours as always!

Anadæ Quenyan Effro said...

I am y'r m'st ob'd'nt s'rv'nt, my friend, brother, colleague, Damhán (your name in Gaelic, same pronunciation), and as the son of a late 5th Air Force communications officer my(s)elf who was stationed in Fukuoka, Japan, I can attest that the gub'mint indeed Gnos far, far more 'an they're lettin' on!

Why, my 'rents were abducted them(s)elves, whilst on a snuggly New Moon (necessitating no moon) date after WWII, way up in Plattsburgh, NY, a good many years earlier than the "Incident at Exeter", famously suffered by the interracial couple, Betty & Barney Hill.

Intriguingly enough, Tsukuba (the flight engineer) recounts of his feeling of serenity in relation to this humongous craft that dwarfed the flight 1628 Boeing 747. Wouldn't've most close encounterers have been sweating bullets?

Also, isn't Whitley Strieber's wife, Anne, a retired US Army personnel of some rank, too? These "Visitors" oft times follow specific bloodlines whose DNA they've tweaked, long, long ago.

Which brings us TO the Sang Graal. I'm delighted that you've linked The Elven Historical Research Project to your blog, Devin, but I cannot take the credit FOR it; it is the years-long outcome of the intrepid ElfBlade, née Erin Lindsey, whose efforts thereof were born out of the need to satiate her OWN intellectual hunger. Heck, had she been doing the same for university, why, I'd venture to say that she'd've amassed quite the STACK of doctorates by now!

Also, certain UFOs may be "incoming" vortexes to another world, not ships themselves. Ever see this site?

http://projectstrat.com

That's my friend John Shepherd's website (pssst, he also maintains Gay Longhair, too, from which I met my hubbs; see? Some of our ilk ARE geniuses! LOL). Please, Devin, any further questions, fire away. I expect nothing but the best from you & wish you back the same, always ( :-)}

Anadæ Quenyan Effro said...

Devin, please let me Gno whether or (k)NOT(work) you re-sieved the sizable comment that I just posted hereto. My address is Anadae at Rhed dot network, minus the work. LOL. Thanks ( :-)}

Devin said...

Anadae-thanks for the storehouse of information-not only for this post but with a lot of other things as well-I will definitely go to that site later-perhaps even tonight-my back is killing me so I have to lay down for a bit-I am so glad you brought this information up -especially as it directly relates to this post-the vortex theory is very interesting-I had not realized that about Anne Strieber-I never knew what to make of Whitley-to me he comes across very well when I have heard him on the radio-thanks also for telling my name in Gaelic-that is an interesting kind of personal synch too-as I came across my name (as one of the sons of an author of a book I am trying to use for the empire series-the name is a lot more common these days-than when i was growing up but it still jumps out at me-I am very interested in your site and thanks for the info on it-I will definitely have more ?s in the future as this phenomenon is extremely interesting to me-that is also fascinating about your folks! That would indeed been years before the Villas-Boas incident and the Hill case-if you come up with any more info related to UFOs or anything at all especially para-phenom-please always feel free to post it here-sometimes I wonder if the universe has a large enough(infinity) size to contain all of the various UFO hypotheses? I also believe .gov:-) knows much more than it is letting on-best to you as always and like I say I will have some questions and always feel free to post here-I was trying to find an old Fortean Times magazine I had with info about how elves were displeased with Icelands building of roads in certain areas-i think it would make a great post for this blog-even 2 posts or so if i quoted verbatim-but I can't find it -I have a bunch of these mags over the years and am going to keep searching! Best to you as always!

Devin said...

Anadae-just had to come back and say with a smile that I am glad you found a 'genius'-hehe:-) LOL-unfortunately my 'one' is not quite to that level-but i really should not complain because I am no genius either:-)

X. Dell said...

Interesting. Seems to me the Air Force would have had an interest in investigating this matter.

Devin said...

I very much wonder if they did Xdell-you would think that if in this case it wasn't one of 'ours' and i do not believe in this particular case it was-you would think some sort of investigation had to have happened-thanks again for stopping by tonight-now i am going to go to your place to read your new post!