Captain Kenju Terauchi
Captain Kenju Terauchi was the pilot of Japan Airlines cargo flight 1628 who, on November 17, 1986, reported observing a massive unidentified craft and two smaller luminous objects shadow his Boeing 747-200F for 31 consecutive minutes at 35,000 feet over Alaska. His encounter — corroborated by two crew members and confirmed by FAA radar — is considered one of the most credible and well-documented aviation UAP incidents on record.
| Role | Japan Airlines pilot |
|---|
The Encounter
On the Reykjavik-to-Anchorage leg of a Paris-to-Tokyo cargo route, Terauchi and two crew members first spotted the objects approaching from the left at approximately 5:00 p.m. He described the primary craft as roughly the size of an aircraft carrier — approximately four Boeing 747s in diameter — accompanied by two smaller luminous objects. The primary craft maintained a 7.5-mile standoff distance from the aircraft, alternating between constant-speed orbital flight around the 747 and rapid darting maneuvers in and out of its orbital path. The encounter lasted 31 minutes at cruising speed.
FAA FPS-117 long-range 3D phased array radar independently confirmed the presence of an object at approximately 7.5 miles from the aircraft throughout the encounter, changing sides during the radar's 12-second sweep intervals.
Aftermath
Terauchi's account was credible enough to receive serious attention from aviation authorities and researchers. Aviation Week and Space Technology promoted the explanation that he had witnessed the planets Mars and Jupiter — an explanation J. Allen Hynek and other researchers cited as an example of institutionalized debunking of credible reports. Kevin Knuth later published academic analysis estimating that the craft's circular maneuvers would have subjected it to 84 ± 8 Gs sustained over 31 minutes, far beyond any human physiological or known engineering limit.