JAL Flight 1628 — Massive Object Over Alaska

On November 17, 1986, JAL cargo flight 1628, a Boeing 747-200F en route from Paris to Tokyo via Anchorage, experienced a prolonged encounter with multiple unidentified objects over Alaska airspace. Captain Kenjyu Terauchi, a veteran pilot with over 10,000 flight hours, first observed two small objects with arrays of lights flanking the aircraft. After approximately 30 minutes, these were replaced by a massive object positioned ahead of the aircraft. Terauchi described this object as 'two times bigger than an aircraft carrier' — a scale inconsistent with any known aerial platform. Anchorage FAA Air Route Traffic Control Center confirmed radar contact on both Anchorage center radar and Elmendorf Air Force Base military radar. A Military Aviation Command (MAC) aircraft diverted to intercept found nothing after the JAL crew reported the object had departed. The FAA launched a formal investigation; the case files — including the full radar track data — were included in a 1987 FAA release and subsequently entered into the NARA archive set. FAA Division Chief John Callahan, who briefed the CIA and Reagan administration officials on the case, later stated publicly that he was instructed to keep the investigation confidential. The 2026 archive release includes the unredacted CIA briefing summary.