Tools.UFO-Track.com - UFO Investigator's Toolkit - Sky Data
They said the UFO you saw was actually just Venus... well, now it's fast and easy to check for yourself!
On November 17, 1986, Japan Airlines (JAL) cargo flight 1628, a Boeing 747, encountered three anomalous objects as it flew over Alaska near Anchorage. The pilot, and his crew members, described each object in great detail.
Here is the original hand-drawn sketch by Captain Kenju Terauchi of the largest object, a walnut shaped craft that swiftly flew completely around his plane. Look close to find the tiny sketched image of his large 747 "Jumbo Jet" off to the right of the object, to show their relative sizes:
The official conclusion by the FAA and other authorities was that the crew was looking at Jupiter in the night sky. Let's check that out.
UFO-Track Toolkit
I'm passionate about helping in any way I can to unearth the truth about UFOs and UAPs. To that end I've created several online software tools that are free for anyone to use. You can find them at UFO-Track.com/tools
One of the tools in the Toolkit is called UFO Sky Data . It runs great in any web browser, but it's designed for easy access and use on a smartphone.
Plugging in the data
According to the official FAA investigation documents, the best estimate for the location of the event was about 40 miles southwest of Fairbanks, and 40 miles from Eilson AFB. I used Google Maps to locate the latitude and longitude that fit this description as accurately as possible.
The date was November 17, 1986, and it all happened over a twenty minute period centered on 5:20 pm Alaska Standard Time.
As you can see, the Sun, Venus, and Saturn were all below the horizon and therefore "not visible". The Moon was full, near the northeast horizon. To determine the heading of the 747 we can have Google Maps sketch the great circle route from its last stop in Reykjavik, Iceland to its next refueling stop in Anchorage. This line is very near the spot previously determined, so everything indicates we're in the right ballpark.
By using another tool in the toolkit, Earth Distance and Heading , and by right-clicking on Google Maps at two spots along this line, we can determine that the 747 was facing about 212 degrees, or basically toward the southwest.
Analysis
From all this we can state with confidence that the Moon was directly behind the aircraft, so it can be ruled out. Jupiter was indeed roughly one hands width above the horizon, but it was way to the left, out over the left wing tip.
To be fair, Captain Terauchi did a 360 slow turn to the right, with permission of the control tower at the time, but here's his exact words in the FAA report... "I made a 360-degree turn to see if the object would follow. It did. This convinced me it was not a star or planet."
Conclusion
I wrote this article not as a way to prove or disprove the official explanation for the Alaska event, although I have convinced myself their explanation was dismissive. My goal here is to show how we can leverage our own tools and investigative techniques to verify or refute official explanations when appropriate. How many times over the years have we been told that the witnesses probably saw Venus! Now you have a toolkit to check for yourself.
Accuracy
As a follow-up note, you may be wondering about the accuracy of the Sky Data calculations. The modified VSOP87 theory of equations presented by astronomers such as Jean Meeus was used, accurate to about 0.01 degrees, which is about 1/50th of the diameter of the Sun or Moon. I've used these same algorithms in the past to aim heliostats and photovoltaic trackers for high accuracy real-time control of major solar energy projects.
UFO-Track
In addition to the toolkit, UFO-Track is building a network of anomalous event observation members. Using the low-cost UFO-Sense box, currently in beta testing, or just by reporting events with a phone on our special web page, we can get members in an area notified so they can get outside to take multiple smartphone videos of objects in the sky. We have software developed to analyse multiple videos or photos for distance, size, velocity, and acceleration - extremely important data that has largely been overlooked by the UFO investigation community until now.
If you are familiar with the Phoenix Lights event, imagine how that would have played out differently if a hundred UFO-Track members in the area had caught the object on their phones!
If this is of interest to you, please sign up at UFO-Track.com to be notified as this project launches.
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