Hangzhou Xiaoshan Airport UFO Closure

Hangzhou Xiaoshan International Airport sits in Xiaoshan district, Hangzhou. On the evening of Wednesday 7 July 2010, there was no rain and no thunderstorm between 20:00 and 21:00. Weather would not explain what happened next. Some outlets later gave the date as 9 July. That was the day the first reports were published.

About 20:40. The crew of an incoming flight was preparing to descend. They noticed an object and told air traffic control. Investigators later said two flight crews saw it. Neither the crews nor the flights were ever named.

What they saw was a single point of light. No craft, no structure. An airport employee described a dot of light that flickered briefly and then disappeared, and Xinhua wrote of "twinkling lights". Residents told reporters it gave off red and white rays of light, and a flight crew reported a "bright comet-like tail". Airport staff placed it southeast of the airport, around the Dangshan and Guali areas.

A local bus driver watched it go. "The thing suddenly ran westwards fast, like it was escaping from something."

20:45. Air traffic control told the airport it suspected an unidentified flying object. Takeoffs and landings stopped. Duty manager Luo Miaoxiang explained the choice: "They said they suspected an unidentified flying object, so flights in the air could only divert, or there could be a collision." He said staff and passengers inside the airport did not see it.

Twelve arrivals diverted: six to Nanjing, three to Ningbo, two to Nanchang and one to Wuxi. Six departures were delayed by more than an hour. A China Eastern flight from Chongqing circled for about 20 minutes at 7 to 8 km before landing. Controllers searched with radar, including a higher level system, and sent aircraft up to inspect the airspace, but nothing unusual turned up. The airport reopened at 21:41 or 21:50, depending on the paper.

Wang Jian, head of air traffic control at the Zhejiang branch of the Civil Aviation Administration of China, told Xinhua: "No conclusion has yet been drawn." A China Daily source claimed the authorities had identified the object but would not disclose it because of a "military connection". Nothing was ever published.

On 14 and 15 July, a joint team from the Beijing UFO Research Society and the Shanghai UFO Exploration and Research Center contacted the airport and the aviation authorities. Their findings appeared on 26 July. Radar never detected the object. Two crews saw it. The photos circulating online showed aircraft and had nothing to do with the event. They found "no evidence" of an alien craft. Because airport radar has blind spots, private or military aircraft could not be ruled out. Zhang Yunhua noted that the radar only picks up aircraft carrying compatible transponders. Some accounts link the military possibility to Hangzhou Jianqiao Airport.

Geoff Forden of MIT, writing on Arms Control Wonk, proposed a DF-21 missile test launched from near Jiuquan, while stressing high uncertainty. He also identified a rocket clip passed off as Hangzhou footage as almost certainly a Progress-M launch from Baikonur. Others suggested sunlight reflecting off ordinary aircraft, a mirage from a temperature inversion, or a glow kite. The Yangzi Evening News reported that the object was a small private plane flying without authorization.

In November 2010, at a Shanghai UFO forum, Wang Sichao of Purple Mountain Observatory said the official conclusion lacked evidence. The case had "too many doubts", he said. What did the two crews see, and where? Would a private plane's lights even match? Those questions were never answered.