On November 17, 1986, Japan Air Lines cargo flight 1628, a Boeing 747 flying from Paris to Tokyo via Reykjavík and Anchorage, was over eastern Alaska at 35,000 feet when Captain Kenji Terauchi saw lights he could not identify.
Terauchi said two smaller objects flew alongside and very close to the plane, and that a far larger one, "twice the size of an aircraft carrier", followed them. With Anchorage air traffic control's permission he changed altitude and turned, but said the lights stayed with him.
The FAA investigated and released its files. Some radar returns seemed to show an object near the plane, but the FAA later said they were most likely a split image of the 747 itself. Astronomers and skeptics suggest the crew saw Jupiter and Mars.