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ats Philip J. Kilass Dear Paul Steucke: your files publication, you have my permission additional copies if ‘you wish. Cordially,

PHILIP J. KLASS 404 N ST SOUTHWEST WASHINGTON. D C 20024 Special Reports FAA Data Sheds New Light On JAL Pilot’s UFO Report Philip J. Klass 12 UFO MOVEMENT, suffering from an extended drought of excit- ing new UFO incidents to attract media and public interest, got a sorely needed shot in the arm in early January, when it was disclosed that the pilot of a Japan Air Lines 747 cargo airliner had reported an encounter with a giant UFO over Alaska on November 17, while flying to Anchorage from France. The incident had occurred in twilight conditions, starting about 6:15 P.M. local time, with the s…

Airliner cre so Qt eee | Jet ilot’s report of UFO verified onradar screens locate the JAL airliner. The United crew, looking ahead and to its left, readily spotted JAL, silhouetted against a still faintly light sky, but could not see any luminous object in its vicinity. Shortly before the two aircraft passed, Terauchi was asked again to give the UFO's posi- tion, and he reported that it was “just ahead of United”—which would place the oright light to the southeast. Despite the fact that the bright light seemed to Terauchi to be directly ahead of the United jetliner, its crew saw nothing. In th…

could have generated the undulating flame-colored lights that Terauchi described. It would also explain why the undu- lating lights would periodically and sud- denly disappear and then reappear as cloud conditions ahead changed. When the aircraft finally outflew the ice clouds and the initial “UFO” disappeared for good, Terauchi would search the sky for it, spot Jupiter further to the left, and conclude it was the original UFO. This case is likely to become a classic in the UFO inventory because many peo- ple assume that a senior airline captain could never mistake a bright planet or other pro…

Subject From To Q Memorandum US Department of Transportation Federal Aviation Administration INFORMATION: Release of Incident Information Date Maren 16, 1907 re. JAL 1626 (UFO) Director's Response _ . ; wae Reply to Pubsic Affairs Officer Attn of File On March 12, 1937, 1:30 pm, I met at tne request of the Director and Deputy to discuss the conmunication problems that existed between AAL-5 ana AAL=500 (AAL- 300 was in attendance aiso), resulting from AAL-500's refusal to continue providing FOIA materiais on tne JAL 1628 UFO flignt, statements made oy AAL-500 in the Director's staff meeting re …

Q Memorandum US Department of Transportation Federal Aviation Administration Subject ACTION: Release of Incident Information March 10, 1987 re. JAL 16265 (UFO) Date PUBLIC AFFAIRS OFFICER, AAL-5 pemy te From Attn of ToDIRECTOR, AAL-1, CC:AAL-500 Attached for your review and information is correspondence and records of telephone conversations which document my inquiry into the source of an unauthorized and premature release of investigative information by someone in the Washington, D.C. FAA office. The material they released was created by the Alaskan Region Air Traffic Division as part of the …

~2- Premature release of JAL 1628 I have drafted a letter to Messrs Harvey B. Safeer, ATS-1, and David F. Thomas, ASF-120, informing them of this premature release of information and asking them to provide me with the names of persons who they might have shared the information with prior to our release date. I may have to pursue this to another lower level to locate the leak and the authority. I did not want to cross out of our regional jurisdiction without your knowledge or approval. I have not coordinated this with Steve Hayes, APA-1, pending your review and comment. The following materials …

ACTION: Release of Incident March 11, 1987 Information, JAL1628 PUBLIC AFFAIRS OFFICER, AAL-5 HARVEY B. SAFEER, ATS-1 AFT Manager, Policy and Recommendation Branch FAA, Washington, D.C. A Mr. Phillip Klass, in a nationwide wire service news story dated January 30, 1987, has stated that he reviewed a complete copy of the transcript for the above flight, even though the investigation of this incident had not been completed and none of the information had been released to the public or media. The premature and unauthorized viewing and release of this material with its subsequent publishing placed…