 A Boeing 747-200 similar to the aircraft involved | |
| Incident | |
|---|---|
| Date | November 17, 1986 |
| Summary | Alleged UFO sighting |
| Site | Alaska, United States |
| Aircraft | |
| Aircraft type | Boeing 747-246F |
| Operator | JAL Cargo |
| Call sign | JAPAN AIR 1628 |
| Flight origin | Paris, France[clarification needed] |
| Stopover | Keflavík International Airport, Suðurnesjabær, Iceland |
| 1st stopover | Anchorage International Airport, Anchorage, Alaska, United States |
| Destination | New Tokyo International Airport, Narita, Chiba, Japan |
| Occupants | 3 |
| Passengers | 0 |
| Crew | 3 |
| Fatalities | 0 |
| Injuries | 0 |
| Missing | 0 |
| Survivors | 3 |
Japan Air Lines Cargo Flight 1628 was a Japanese Boeing 747-200F cargo aircraft flying from Paris[clarification needed] to Narita International Airport that was involved in an unidentified flying object (UFO) sighting on November 17, 1986. During the flight, Captain Kenji Terauchi reported seeing three objects he described as "two small ships and the mothership". The FAA in Anchorage only saw Flight 1628 on their radar. Two other nearby planes only saw Flight 1628 and no other objects. An FAA investigation of the incident characterized Terauchi as a "UFO repeater". Astronomers and investigators have determined that Terauchi probably mistook the planets Jupiter and Mars as UFOs. Contradictions among the accounts of the crew from the three aircraft as well as contradictions between the transcripts and later interviews with Terauchi have cast doubt that anything unusual happened.