Conflicting reports out of China continue related to UFO incidents that caused the shut down of airports in China.

On July 7th, airport officials in China were forced to shut down the Xiaoshan airport in Hangzhou. Almost two months later, on September 11th, airport officials shut down an airport in Baotou, Inner Mongolia.

Airport officials at both airports cited UFOs as the reason for the airport shut downs. The sighting in Baotou was called a “near collision” between a UFO and a commercial passenger flight.

The Xiaoshan incident was explained away by an illegally flying private plane by China Daily on August 5th. The only explanation regarding the Bataou incident, until now, was a denial that the incident ever happened. According to ABC News,“The Chinese government had said on previous occasions that the lights claimed to be UFOs were military exercises, but the government denied the Sept. 11 incident happened at all.”

The South China Morning Post (SCMP) in Hong Kong has released an alternate explanation for the Baotou incident that never mentions that government denial. The explanation now matches the initial Xiaoshan airport explanation: “black flights” (illegally flying private planes and helicopters).

Time wrote about the “black flight” problem in mid-August to explain away the Hangzhou incident. It was stated that China’s billionaires fly off-the grid, making short-hop flights, because China’s airspace is tightly controlled by the government. The process to fly legally would take much too long for the billionaires to take off “on the fly” to match their schedules. According to Time, “Would-be flyers need to apply to several different local and national ministries and departments to get the appropriate licenses and must submit detailed flight plans to the local air-traffic-control
department at least seven working days in advance.” Therefore, the billionaires bypass the legalities. If they are caught, the fees are just pocket change for these billionaires, it was reported.

None of these articles, however, have offered an explanation as to why experienced airport officials would identify planes as ‘UFOs” as the reason for shutting down airports.

The Baotou incident was the 9th report of a UFO in China since June, with the others reporting from Hunan, Sichuan, Shandong, Shanxi, Yunnan and Zhejiang provinces and the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region.

But wait, in another now conflicting piece of information, the SCMP now reports that the Xiaoshan Airport shut down in July was due to a military test at a nearby air force base. This conflicts with the China Daily explanation from August 5th that blamed the incident on a “black flight”. The news source also reports: “In late April, flights to Shanghai’s Pudong and Hongqiao airports were delayed or forced to be diverted after an illegal flight by a helicopter.”

SCMP does not elaborate as to why those incidents did not prompt airport officials to dub the helicopters with the UFO label in April. SCMP is regarded as a “serious” newspaper and is considered as neutral towards the government. It is also considered to be a more “establishment-leaning” publication, according to Wikipedia.

Copyright © 2010 Cherlyn Gardner Strong

Read more of Cherlyn’s posts as a contributor for Paranormal Utopia, or at Cherlyn’s Paranormal Old Pueblo website

It was reported last week that a string of UFO sightings had been recently reported in China. The sightings took place in Shanxi Province. The same day the Shanxi UFOs were reported to the U.S. via news agencies, the sightings moved closer to home, to New York.

Shortly after New York’s sightings, a rumored UFO abduction of a village was reported to have occurred in China’s Shaanxi Province. We all know that this Shaanxi Province UFO abduction was only a rumor. The Shanxi Province UFO was not. The neighboring provinces can be viewed on the map below.

So, while we are on the subject, I thought it would be helpful  to provide the names of provinces in which other UFO sightings took place since June 30th of this year:

• Xinjiang Uygur Zizhiqu
  
• Hunan
• Zhejiang (2 Hangzhou, Haiyan County)
  
• Sichuan (2: Municipality of Chongqing, Yibin)
  
• Guangdong
• Inner Mongolia
  
• Shanxi

Of these, only three sightings had official explanations released to news agencies.

The sighting in Yibin of Sichuan Province was declared to be a lit kite.

The sighting in Dongguan of Guandong Province was determined to be plane exhaust.

The sighting in Hangzhou (Zhejiang Province), that shut down the Xiaoshan Airport on July 7th, was given the official explanation of “likely a private plane”.

According to ABC News, officials in China have refused to comment about the September 11th sighting which took place in Inner Mongolia and shut down another airport.

I stumbled across a UFODigest post that piqued my interest. It states that an entire village disappeared in China yesterday after a reported UFO sighting. The partial post below shows the headline.

I did do a quick search about the source for this post: Sohu News. I found a few sources that state that Sohu News out of China is considered to be a tabloid-level news source with no credibility.  If not, could the meaning of the article have been lost in translation?

Since this is sure to spread like wildfire, with hundreds of other websites reporting this alleged incident, you can make the judgment for yourself. I vote for a tabloid news source wanting page views.

***UPDATE: 10/18/10 PEOPLE’S DAILY ONLINE SAYS STORY IS FALSE***

Qinling event: “inexplicable disappearance of a village in the Qinling Mountains,” the truth has been blocked by the military

At 4:00 on October 13 Qinling event, reportedly, four in the morning today, a village in the Qinling mountain inexplicably disappeared. Now the military has cordoned off the area. According to eyewitnesses, a UFO flying around.

[Continue to read at UFODigest]