On March 18, 1965, 7:06 P.M. local time, Japan, an airliner pilot reported being paced by a strange object over the Seto inland sea. The aircraft, a Toa Air Lines Convair 240 with 28 passengers aboard, was over the Ie Shima Islands when the pilot suddenly noticed an oblong, luminescent object approaching his plane. It came close to the airliner, causing the pilot to make a 60-degree turn to avoid a collision. The object then stopped, made an abrupt turn and flew along with the aircraft for about three minutes. It finally disappeared toward Takamatsu. The Convair pilot said the craft was about 15 meters in size and radiated a greenish light, which prevented him from determining the details of the object whose shape was triangular.
About 30 seconds later the pilot of a Tokyo Air Lines Piper Apache made an emergency radio call to the Takamatsu tower, saying a UFO was pursuing his plane over the city.
Meanwhile, the chief engineer and two other workers of an electric company saw the object from the ground and reported it was "shaped like a triangle whose top radiated brilliant light. It was in sight for about 10 seconds." A policeman and his wife also reported a UFO.
Here is a letter by the first controller at the involved air traffic control station to Eugenio Danyans, spanish ufologist, and his colleagues, in answer to their asking for details following this UFO incident, which made the headlines in the world Press in 1965:
Takamatsu Aeronautic Assistance Office Hayashi Cho, Tamakatsu, Japan
April 6, 1965
Sirs,
In response to your request for information concerning the unidentified flying object that was encountered by two planes above the Seto Sea, in Japan, March 18, 1965, here is the information that we were able to gather.
A Convair 240 plane of the Toa airlines, registered JA 5131, carrying passengers, had taken off from Osaka International Airport bound for Hiroshima. It flew towards the West above the Ie Shima islands (3440N, 13430E), at an altitude of 1800 meters. It was 10:15, Greenwich Meridian Time, when its pilot, Yoshiharu Inaba, aged 43, suddenly noticed an unidentified luminescent object, which approached the plane. He is a professional pilot having a 8600 hours flight experience. The visibility was of 40 km, the moon was full and shone in a cloudless sky. The pilot discovered the UFO 60 degrees on his left. Its altitude was 2000 meters or perhaps more. The captain drew the attention of his copilot Majima to the object, and without changing speed nor altitude, he made his landing lights function, because the object seemed to approach the plane quickly. The object had the shape of an equilateral triangle, had approximately 15 meters on side, and in its center emitted a greenish gleam. The pilot, frightened to see it coming in so close, made a 60 degrees turn towards the right to avoid a collision. At this time, the UFO changed direction and started to fly beside the plane and to pace it during three minutes. During this time, ADF instruments vibrated violently; the plane started to lean a little. The weather was always still clear. The pilot immediately tried to come into contact by radio with his company or the control tower, to inform them of the situation, but in vain. In a curious manner, the UFO disappeared suddenly at 10:09 GMT. At 10:14, the pilot announced the incident to the control tower in Tamakatsu, the first station which he managed to come into contact with.
Another plane in flight, registered JA 3231, a Piper Apache of Tokyo Airlines, which heard the radio message, indicated to the control tower that he had also seen this luminous object at 10:07 GMT at approximately 15 kilometers of the town of Tamakatsu (3417N, 1340E). The two pilots spoke by radio during a few minutes about the strange object which they had seen. All the conversation was recorded on magnetic tape by the control tower. According to Negishi, the pilot of the Piper Apache, the UFO was at an altitude of 2700 meters when he enoucntered it while moving towards Osaka at an altitude of 2200 meters.
The same day, at roughly to the same time, engineers who worked in the mountain near Hiroshima, said that they had seen something which had to be a flying saucer. Moreover, a police officer and his wife also saw this object from Tokushi, in the island of Shikoku.
These are the facts. Nobody knows what this object really was. We have received numerous assumptions from Japan and foreign countries. They all present great interest. We too, are impassioned by these facts, and any information which can be useful for us will be largely appreciated.
Akira Tagushi
First Air Traffic Controller
Takamatsu Aeronautic Assistance Office
Department of the Civilian Aviation
Ministry of Transports, Japan
