Creepy_Green_Light, thanks for posting the interesting blog. I want to comment on a couple of the points. The blog contains quotes from Phil Klass in which Klass misrepresents what the Copilot and Flight Engineer said (what a surprise).
First as a quick recap, there were two types of UFO reported in the encounter. There was the “large” UFO off the left side of the JAL 747 which could be seen primarily by Captain Terauchi through his left side window. This UFO appeared as two disconnected horizontal white lights. It was around these white lights that Captain Terauchi thought he could sometimes see the huge walnut-shaped silhouette. There were also two rectangular formations of an estimated 70-80 lights that moved as a unit to a position in front of the plane for about 5 minutes. These were clearly seen by all three crew members.
With regard to the Copilot, Klass took a statement out of context and wrote:
“When the copilot [Takanori Tamefuji] was asked if he could distinguish these lights ‘as being different’ from a star, he replied:’No.’”
The January 5, 1987 FAA interview with Tamefuji was done with the aid of an interpreter and encountered translation issues. In note 9 of his extensive report, Dr. Bruce Maccabee described the context of that statement:
“The difficulty in communicating through an interpreter is evident in the transcript of this interview. At one point the interviewer asked Tamefuji, referring to the arrays of lights ahead and to the left, ‘And you could distinguish these lights as being different from the star...?’ Tamefuji’s reponse is transcribed as ‘NNNooo...,’ which some might interpret as meaning that Tamefuji couldn’t distinguish the lights from stars. But the interviewer immediately continued ‘...from the stars?’ to which Tamefuji replied, ‘Different is fine.’ Subsequently Tamefuji made it quite clear that the lights were very different from stars.”
Some other comments Copilot Tamefuji made during the Jan 5, 1987 FAA interview:
When asked whether the formation of lights looked like an aircraft:
“And, but ah, very strange ah, I ah, it was too many lights …”
When asked about the color of the lights:
“… I think ah, salmon, just like Christmas assorted …and ah, I remember, red or orange, hum, and a white landing light. And weak green, ah, blinking”
Describing the sets of lights moving as one unit:
“How should I say – looks just like this, (hand signs were made by Mr. Tamefuji) moving like in one …very good formation flight”
Even Klass could have read this and seen this was not a person who thought he had seen something no different than stars. Klass would have also been well aware of the recorded communication between the Copilot and air controller in which Tamefuji talks about the unidentified “traffic” flashing strobe lights that was positioned in front of the JAL 747.
Here is the complete FAA interview with Copilot Takanori Tamefuji.
http://russhaywood.com/wp-haywood/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/Tamefuji-Interview-JAL-1628.pdf
With regard to the Flight Engineer, Klass wrote:
“[Flight Engineer Yoshio Tsukuba] ‘was not sure whether the object was a UFO or not’’
Once again Klass zeros in on a single sentence while ignoring the rest of what the Flight Engineer said. While Tsukuba was not sure the object was a “UFO”, there was no question in his mind that he saw the formation move in front of the plane and it was like nothing he had seen before.
Comments Flight Engineer Tsukuba made during the Jan 15, 1987 FAA interview:
Describing the formations of lights that moved in front of the plane:
“The first time I saw it was through the L1 window, at the 11 o’clock position. It looked larger than navigation lights. I do not remember exactly how many of those (lights) were there but clusters of lights undulating.”
“The lights in front of us were clusters of lights like this. I think they were made of two parts. How should I say this, but the lights were shaped like windows of a passenger aircraft.”
When asked how long he saw the objects:
“The one in front of us, as I mentioned earlier, I saw it for about 10 minutes, then, the one on our left side at 9 o’clock, together, a total of 30 minutes. The lights in front of us and the other one were of two absolutely different nature of lights.”
When asked what he saw on the plane’s radar when Captain Terauchi asked him to check for the object to the left of the plane:
“Yes, a green dot like, not exactly like a dot. It was not a dot, but stream like, I think the range was about 10 miles. I do not think it (on the radar) was the same lights as the one I saw in front of us.”
Here is the complete FAA interview with Flight Engineer Yoshio Tsukuba.
http://russhaywood.com/wp-haywood/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/Tsukuba-Interview-JAL-1628.pdf
Dr. Bruce Maccabee’s report:
FLIGHT OF JAL1628
It should be remembered that in at least one other case Klass offered a witness (Steve Pierce) $10,000 to come out and say he was lying without any concern for whether the witness was actually lying (Pierce declined the offer).
I've not heard that. He's not one of my favorite people so I am not one to make a stand about him, but it fits with my impression of him. The guy was OTT ego from the get-go.
