Japan Airlines Flight 1628 Encounter

On November 17, 1986, while flying from Paris to Tokyo via Anchorage at 35,000 feet over eastern Alaska, the crew of Japan Air Lines Flight 1628 (Captain Kenji Terauchi, First Officer Takanori Tamefuji, Flight Engineer Yoshio Tsukuba) first spotted two unidentified objects with arrays of lights pacing their 747. The objects were described as cylindrical or walnut-shaped. Shortly after, a vastly larger craft ('mothership,' estimated twice the size of an aircraft carrier with rows of windows/lights) appeared behind them. The objects were detected on the plane's weather radar and confirmed by Anchorage Air Route Traffic Control Center radar (and briefly military radar at Elmendorf). The crew performed evasive maneuvers, but the objects followed for about 50 minutes and 400 miles. FAA Administrator Donald Engen acknowledged the radar contacts publicly. The case is notable for multi-crew visual confirmation, radar correlation, and official FAA documentation.