This paper summarizes the results of analyses of a video taken
on October 23, 2004 approximately 50 km ESE of Itami International
Airport, Osaka., Japan at about 1730 hrs by Mr. K. Amamiya while
using a hand-held, Hi-8 digital camera. He was recording the over-flight
of a commercial jet aircraft enroute to the airport. Unexpectedly
a small, intense, yellow-orange-white silent light (hereafter
referred to as unidentified aerial phenomena UAP) appeared in
the lower right-hand corner of the camera's digital display but
was not seen visually. It traveled on an apparently linear path
toward the upper left of the display at a relatively constant
angular rate of travel; it remained visible for three minutes
and then faded out. We discovered that: (1) the UAP was nearer
to the camera than the aircraft, (2) the UAP was at least as intense
as the wing tip lights on the B777-300 aircraft and did not appear
to fluctuate in intensity to any great degree, (3) the calculated
average height of the UAP was on the order of five feet and its
image size tended to increase slightly during the first five seconds
of the video, (4) the calculated angular velocity of the UAP was
about 1.25 deg/sec. during the early part of the video, (5) it
is likely that the UAP was emitting radiation in the near infrared
since it was not visible to the naked eye, (6) the number of UAP
imaged varied from one to three, and (7) the aircraft involved
most likely was Japan Airlines flight 1521 from Tokyo. The real
significance of this case lies in its aviation safety potential
since no such unidentified object or energetic phenomenon should
be flying in the vicinity of commercial air lanes. If this phenomenon
was visible it might have been seen by the pilots causing some
unplanned emergency operation or other disruptive response. This
UAP remains unidentified at this time.
Background Information
Whenever an airborne object flies near
an airplane or an airport and cannot be identified or communicated
with it constitutes a potential threat to flight safety.
The UAP in the present instance was within the controlled
air space of two airports: Kansai and Itami International
Airports , at Osaka , Japan . The UAP that was captured
on digital video was very nearly on the approach path to
runway 32 at Itami airport. Flight crews who cannot identify
or communicate with any nearby object may react to their
presence in inappropriate ways. A collision is possible
in such instances. As will be seen, it is not likely that
the flight crew onboard the jet airplane saw the present
UAP that approached them from their right-rear direction.
On November 16, 2004 the first author received
an e-mail from Mr. Kiyoshi Amamiya (K.A.) in Japan with
four attached jpeg (compressed) digital images. One of them
showed a two-engine jet airplane seen against an evenly
illuminated sky with a small orange-white object near its
left wingtip. The other images were enlargements of this
UAP that consisted of two small, self-luminous objects near
each other. Nine initial questions were sent to K.A. the
same day. A package was received from him on December 2,
2004 containing a Hi-8 video cassette and a 3 by 4 color
print of the airplane and UAP. A request was then sent to
all National Aviation Reporting Center on Anomalous Phenomena
(NARCAP) Research Associates on December 6, 2004 requesting
their possible assistance; William Puckett replied the next
day; he possessed needed hardware as well as valuable technical
expertise as a professional meteorologist. Several other
NARCAP Research Associates also indicated interest in seeing
the tape and providing further assistance.
The second author was sent the video tape
and immediately transferred it to a VHS analog tape for
viewing and also to a CD for other analyses. A list of thirty
more questions was sent to K.A. on December 14, 2004 . By
December 22, 2004 the available UAP and airplane images
had been measured in various ways as described below and
the witness provided answers to all thirty questions as
well as other useful information.
Local Geographic, Meteorological, and Related
Features
This video event took place very near the
town of Tenri City, about fifty km ESE of Itami airport
(see footnote 1). Mr. K.A. stood in a farm field to take
this video (Figure; photo taken early in 2005). The region
is flat with low hills generally rising to the east and
west. Note also that in this recreation the camera's line
of sight was elevated approximately ten degrees arc above
the local horizon to capture the passing airplane. Figure
2 illustrates both the witness's location and the approximate
flight path of the jet airplane arriving from Tokyo . Mr.
K.A. said that he began video taping the jet airplane on
a magnetic bearing of about 220 deg and finished taping
along a bearing of about 260 deg arc (see footnote 2).
Airplane's Flight Path . Mr. K.A. provided
us with official flight path data he obtained from his country's
aviation officials. The airplane, identified as one arriving
from Tokyo (see footnote 3), used two final navigation beacons
called VHF Omni-Directional Range (VOR); they were Ise
and Yamato found on aviation charts. Only Yamato is shown
in Figure 2. Established on a heading of 276 deg. and approaching
Yamato VOR from Ise farther east, the jet turned 48 degrees
right to a final heading of 324 deg that ended at the airport
runway. This afforded an almost straight-in approach to
runway 320 as shown in Figure 2.
Figure 1. Mr. Kiyoshi Amamiya Recreating Video Sequence
at Original Site
Figure 2. Chart of Approximate Flight Path of B-777 Jet,
Japan Airlines Flight 1521
The airport surface is at an altitude of fifty
feet above sea level at (Lat. 34.7855N; Long 135.4382 E.).
Both of its runways are parallel and oriented 140 and 320
degrees magnetic. Runway 32 right is shortest and is normally
used by narrow body aircraft and 32 left by wide body aircraft
because of its length and also noise abatement requirements.
Overview of UAP Video Imagery : Figure 3 shows
the jet aircraft at time 00:08 (all values are elapsed time
(ET) in minutes: seconds from start of video). Over the
course of the next twenty eight (28) seconds the airplane
did not change its aspect angle (shape) significantly. It
only diminished in overall angular size (by approximately
4 %). This is consistent with an airplane travelling diagonally
away from the camera on a linear path that lies approximately
forty (40) degrees behind the side (elevation) view. This
finding is significant in that it shows that the airplane
had already completed most (or all) of its right-hand turn
at the Yamato VOR (see Figure 2 and Figure 6) and was flying
on the final 324 deg. approach radial from Itami airport.
Figure 4 shows a Japan Airlines B777-300 in flight.
Overview of UAP Video Imagery : Figure 3 shows
the jet aircraft at time 00:08 (all values are elapsed time
(ET) in minutes: seconds from start of video). Over the
course of the next twenty eight (28) seconds the airplane
did not change its aspect angle (shape) significantly. It
only diminished in overall angular size (by approximately
4 %). This is consistent with an airplane travelling diagonally
away from the camera on a linear path that lies approximately
forty (40) degrees behind the side (elevation) view. This
finding is significant in that it shows that the airplane
had already completed most (or all) of its right-hand turn
at the Yamato VOR (see Figure 2 and Figure 6) and was flying
on the final 324 deg. approach radial from Itami airport.
Figure 4 shows a Japan Airlines B777-300 in flight.
The witness aimed his video camera at the
UAP soon after it passed the airplane. This caused the jet
to appear to leave the visual field rapidly. The evenly
illuminated sky made it difficult to discern the airplane's
fuselage markings and also prevented any meaningful analysis
of camera motion after the airplane had left the frame.
Only UAP motion relative to the moving airplane could be
determined with any precision.
Figure 3. Video Frame of JAL
aircraft Near Start of Video
37sec_frame28.jpg
Figure 4. Japan Airlines B777 in flight
Weather and Astronomical Information
. The meteorological conditions at Osaka 's Itami International
Airport [Latitude: 34.785528 Degrees North; Longitude: 135.4382
22 Degrees East; Elevation: 50 Ft (15 m) ASL ; Time zone:
UTC + 9] for: 17:30 hrs. Japan Standard Time were:
Temperature: 63 Degrees F
Dew point: 46 Degrees F
Relative Humidity: 55%
Wind: 030 Degrees (NNE) at 6 mph
Wind at 5,000 Ft: 060 Degrees (ENE)
at 10 knots (11.5 mph)
Sky: Scattered Cloud (1/4 to 1/2 cloud
cover)
Ceiling: Unlimited (No ceiling)
No significant weather observed (visibility
7 miles)
The area was under the influence of
a high pressure system. This assessment is based on the
850 millibar (MB) chart (Figure 5). A solid arrow points
to Osaka . This chart is for 1200 UTC on Saturday 23 October,
2004 and shows the entire northern hemisphere with the north
pole at the center and ten degree latitude circles. It shows
that the 850 MB pressure [height of 1,590 meters (5,215
feet)] was located near Osaka and was the highest in the
region.
Figure 5. 850 Millibar
Pressure Gradients for Northern Hemisphere
The sun had set at 1713 hrs JST on
October 23, 2004 (at Osaka ). The time recorded on the video
was 1730 hrs. Later Mr. K.A. discovered a six minute error
in the camera's time setting such that the actual time of
the incident was 1724. He also stated that the sky was clear
with no rain, fog, or mist present and winds very light
when he took the video; he said about thirty minutes
had passed, after sunset. (see footnote 4) The Moon was
in the SE sky (132 degrees azimuth) at an elevation of approximately
23 degrees at the time. If the witness' s assertion is correct
concerning the azimuth angles through which he aimed his
camera the UAP could not have been the Moon. The UAP was
also angularly smaller and more intense than the Moon. No
bright planets were visible. Mercury had just set (1737
JST ) and Neptune and Uranus, both very faint, were located
in the southeastern sky.
The above information is consistent with the homogeneously
illuminated sky seen in the video; i.e., there are no useful
spatially fixed details with which to determine objective
motion either of the UAP or camera.
General Information
about the Airplane : The airplane was positively identified
by its outline shape as a B777-300: 73.79 m (242.09 ft.)
long with a wing span of 60.93 m (199.8 ft.) and tail height
of 18.52 m. (60.7 ft.) (see footnote 5) Its fuselage is
painted white with the large, dark, block letters JAL (cf.
Fig. 4). Video image analyses showed the presence of the
large but very faint block letters of JAL's logo located
one third of the distance between the nose of the fuselage
and the wing's insertion into the fuselage. The airplane
was very likely Japan Airlines flight 1521 scheduled to
land at Itami at 1730 from Tokyo 's Haneda Airport 278 miles
away. A second possibility could be flight 1520 scheduled
to land at 1735, also from Tokyo . Edges of the solid red
vertical stabilizer of all JAL aircraft was not discernible
in this darkly shaded video image.
It should be noted that because the aircraft was generally
flying obliquely away from the camera's position (Fig. 6)
neither its length or wing-span measurements from these
photographs are accurate. If the horizontal angles on Figure
2 are approximately correct then the airplane's longitudinal
axis would have been rotated through an angle of about 130
deg arc as is illustrated near time 00.39 in Fig. 6. The
present measurements are only to indicate the relative change
in image size over time.
2. At our request Mr. K.A. returned
to the original site and obtained these bearings using a
type HB-3 High Eye Point, Compass Glass accurate to about
0.5 degree arc. Of course the bearing angles he provided
are only rough estimates because this was a reconstruction
from memory and without any fixed object present in the
sky.
3. Itami Airport serves eight airlines.
However, it was discovered that the jet airplane in the
video was a Japan Airlines B777 and that flight 1521 was
scheduled to land at 1730 hrs (when the video was taken).
cf. www.jal.co.jp/en/inter/time/dom/09/hndosa.html
4. Correspondence received January 31, 2005
. Video frame times are cited here.
5. Canaveral/Lab/8803/tech_wb.htm . This dimension is measured
from the ground with the fuselage level and supported on
its landing gear.
