China continues to insist that it was likely a defiant illegally flying billionaire pilot that caused airport officials to shut down Xiaoshan Airport on July 7th.

Time Magazine, in partnership with CNN (who were also quick to call the July 7th incident a hoax), published this semi-informative and not-at-all timely article on Monday.

After today, perhaps it is time to finally let this China UFO incident go. It depends on any additional future explanations that are likely come out of China that make absolutely no sense to most people.

None of these articles from the mainstream media care to question why experienced airport officials would shut down an airport over a commonly spotted private plane, which they initially labeled a UFO.

This is what we want to know. This is the one piece of information they keep avoiding:

What exactly happened in and around that airport that caused all this fuss in the first place?

Note that ‘UFO’ does not automatically mean that aliens from outer space were involved. It simply means that the object is unidentified. Despite the supposition that it was a private plane, it still remains a ‘UFO’, like it or not.

Missile, rocket, plane, meteorite, fairy, Chupacabra, or whatever it was , it is a still a UFO until it is absolutely identified as something concrete.

After the July 7th incident, airport officials were not able to explain what it was that caused them to order the shut down of the airport. UFO experts from Shanghai and Beijing stepped in after a while and surmised that the object was a private plane.

There’s a problem, though. The experts have not yet positively identified that alleged plane, nor have they found the alleged person who piloted that alleged plane.

The key word used in all of these explanations is the word: likely. This overused word is highlighted below in the following blurb from Time’s article:

“But when amateur pictures of the craft were splashed across Chinese newspapers the following morning, experts quickly determined that Hangzhou was not under threat of an imminent alien invasion. Rather, the flying object was identified as most likely being another example of an increasingly common nuisance in China’s airspace: off-the-grid, short-hop flights by local private-plane owners.”

Read the rest of the article on Time’s website here.

Although I am still very curious about this, as well as the never-mentioned-again UFO sighting in Chongqing (that took place a week after the Xiaoshan Airport shutdown), I will likely let this go after today. It simply depends on any additional information that China is likely (or not likely) to release in the future.

So, now I have to share.

Remember last month when we heard about that UFO sighting in China? You know, the sighting on July 7th that caused that hour-long shutdown of the Xiaoshan Airport in China. The one that also coincided with the anniversary of the Roswell incident.

Yes, that’s the one.

Since the airport authorities in Hangzhou couldn’t come up with an answer other than a UFO, a team of UFO experts from Shanghai stepped in to investigate the matter a week later. Then, also a week later, the mainstream media decided to start covering the “UFO in China” news, since some of them didn’t think that bloggers were capable of covering the story.

We all thought that the case was closed when the experts concluded that it was just a private plane that shut down the airport.

This private plane theory did not satisfy UFO enthusiasts (or anyone else). We all had a good chuckle over that explanation, but we did manage to move on with our lives.

So, not leaving well enough alone, and to further support the private plane explanation from the UFO experts, the media in China then released a news story about those pesky private plane flying billionaires. They said that those billionaires fly all over the place in their private planes without first filing flight plans. While the billionaires have caused flights to be diverted in the past, they’ve never managed to shut down an airport.

Well, they didn’t until July, they said.

It was a more creative explanation and it didn’t insult our intelligence too badly. At least it wasn’t another weather balloon that shut down the airport.

It wasn’t just us in the United States who felt that something just wasn’t right about that private plane explanation. The explanation also didn’t satisfy critical thinkers in China. So, the debate continues.

UFO researcher, Professor Wang, has a theory about that private plane. If you recall, Professor Wang recently predicted more UFO sightings to come in 2011 and 2012. So, professor Wang weighed in about the private plane theory.

As reported by Chinanews.com.cn:

According to Wang Sichao, a researcher from the Purple Mountain Observatory of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the UFO that encroached on the airspace of Xiaoshan airport in Hangzhou flew at a height of one kilometer from the ground. It might be some special aircraft, such as a plane, or some rapid, noiseless or low-noise aircraft.

Wang also believes that the UFO was unlikely to be some typical domestic plane or overseas plane. Also, it could not be cruise missile or rocket fragments.

So, are those billionaires now buying unusual private planes that can be mistaken for UFOs? We’ll keep monitoring the news out of China and see what they come up with.

Kudos to Professor Wang that he continues to search for answers related to this incident, since he also knows that the private plane theory isn’t quite convincing enough. So, the special plane theory could explain why airport officials thought that the plane could be a UFO, and caused an airport shutdown because of it.

Of course, we still haven’t heard anything new about that UFO sighting in Chongqing that occurred a week after the Xiaoshan airport incident.

At least some people have grown tired of keeping a lid on things, or having to come up with lame explanations to satisfy the critical thinkers. For example, we recently learned that Winston Churchill once ordered a UFO “cover up”.  Also, according to the Associated Press yesterday, Brazil’s air force has been ordered to document UFO sightings and to make the data available to the public.

In fact, they are just going to disclose all of it in Brazil: “All past and future data — whether written reports, photos or video — will be processed by the air force and then housed in the National Archives in Rio de Janeiro.”

Billionaire private plane owners like Xu Weijie violate flight regulations all the time.

The fines that Xu pays for flying one of his eleven private planes illegally doesn’t make a dent in his enormous pocketbook.

China’s rich would rather pay a fine than go through the painstakingly complex process for a single flight, causing much frustration for everyone else.

Xu’s flying has caused many flights to be diverted or delayed. This past April is a good case in point. Xu’s trip to a tourism resort in Zhejang caused flights to be diverted or delayed at two Shanghai airports: Pudong and Honqiao.

Xu has been ‘punished’ for his actions, which is merely a slap on the hand. On one of his trips, his plane was temporarily taken over by local civil aviation administration (it’s okay, he has ten more planes) and he was fined the equivalent of $4,300 (USD).

Xu’s not alone in the sky. There are many more of these these defiant billionaires. China Daily reports that there are 200 planes owned by billionaires who regularly fly illegally.

There are two types of private plane owners they say, those who report to the aviation departments and those who don’t.

Xu’s excuse for illegal flying: “China’s laws only regulate public planes and military planes, and there are no specific rules regarding private planes.”

On July 7th, Hangzhou’s Xiaoshan International Airport was shut down with 20 flights diverted due to an illegally flying private plane.

That does explain the incident. Sort of.

If airports in China are regularly inconvenienced by flying billionaires, then why would Xiaoshan airport officials and the Chinese media deem the object a ‘UFO’? Additionally, why would it take a team of UFO experts to finally identify the object that shut down an entire airport as a private plane?

Who knows.

We wanted an explanation and we got one. It’s a good one.

At least it wasn’t a “weather balloon” this time.

No evidence shows that the UFO is associated with an extraterrestrial flying saucer, according to the Beijing UFO Research Organization (BURO) on July 25.

BURO believes that the UFO incident stemmed from the activities of private or military aircraft.

According to the information released from the report, the radar did not detect the UFO. The crews of two flights did. BURO noted that the airport radar has “blind spots.”

Aviation authorities have yet to publish any UFO photo or video information. It is stated that any videos or photos released by the media have no connection with the Xiaoshan incident.

The incident at Hangzhou’s Xiaoshan Airport earlier this month caused 20 flights to be diverted, with approximately 2,000 passengers affected. The airport was shut down for an hour.

Of course, I am speaking about the aftermath of the UFO in China and the information currently being written about it on the web.

On July 7, 2010, an airport in China was shut down with flights diverted to neighboring airports because something was spotted in the sky. One week later, on July 14th, a second object was sighted in Chongqing.

That’s it. That’s all we really know.

However, if you read most of the posts all over the web, there’s something more: speculation, theories, sensationalism and misinformation. This week, someone debunked some visual evidence that some media outlets were posting. That’s something new.

So, because of this, some people are blurring the lines between two entirely different facts. Debunking some photo or video evidence is one thing. The shutdown of an airport is another.

There has been no official statement from China yet about why it was shut down. With recent natural disasters, it’s not a big deal to me that they’ve said nothing. If they say nothing about it ever again, then life will go on. Mine will, at least. Like I said, until a statement is released by China authorities, the people writing about these events in these United States is much more interesting to me at the moment.

Some news outlets and their readers are talking this week about a July 7th event that they now say happened last week on July 14th. This stems from mainstream media outlets waiting a full week before reporting the event. ABC News began covering the story on July 14th . Now, some news outlets and their readers are calling July 14th the official date of the event.

Pravda reported the Xiaoshan Airport event happening a week ago: July 14th. Despite leaving a comment with the correct date, at this writing, Pravda has not changed the date to the correct July 7th date. A friend of mine said about Russia’s two papers: “Any Russian will tell you, ‘there is no truth in Pravda (Russian word for ‘truth’) and there is no news in Izvestia (Russian word for ‘news’).’”

The problem is, however, there are some people who believe what they read or what they hear from one source and they treat it as fact before researching the story to get the facts.

CNN is guilty of the same misreporting. Their article was initially misleading. The author or authors implied that the UFO was debunked. In fact, it was not. Most of the photos and a video studied by an expert were debunked.

If you were forwarded this link, would you immediately think that the UFO was debunked? Would you click on this article with a preconceived notion about what the article is about?

http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/asiapcf/07/20/china.ufo.debunked/index.html?

CNN’s headline for this story changed in some news aggregators, from:

“UFOs over China? Not quite, analyst says” to “Analyst: China UFO images likely fake“

I would say that there is quite a difference in headlines there. The headline may have been altered afterwards through some news aggregators, but the first misleading headline still appears in the article.

An airport was shut down. This is at the center of this story and should be the most important focus.

Why was the airport shut down? Debunking a few photos is entirely different than an airport shutdown. These are two different things. Think about it.

Furthermore, CNN’s article states that the Chongqing sighting happened a day after the sighting that shut down the Xiaoshan Airport. CNN, check the facts. The second sighting was a full week later. It was the frenzy of readers seeking information surrounding the second sighting that got you interested.

Since last week, something unbelievable has happened. Headlines have begun to detract from truth to attract readers. I have a couple tips for all writers out there, no matter what your topic may be, paranormal or normal.

First, your headlines should reflect what your article is about. If your headline states that people are panicking or scared about an event, at least interview one of these alleged persons you refer to in your article to give it some validity. You may get page views from your headline, but your readers will be left disappointed. You may even be viewed as a tabloid reporter and your readers won’t trust your information in the future.

Short and simple, but equally important: get the dates right. Readers count on you for accurate information. Dates do count.

“UFOs over China? Not quite, analyst says”

The article link reads:  http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/asiapcf/07/20/china.ufo.debunked/index.html

The article starts out by reporting:

“Those probably were not UFOs that hovered over China recently, a Massachusetts Institute of Technology analyst said.”

What this article is about is the photos of the reported UFO over China. The photos that made headlines in most mainstream media news outlets were phony. Photos were never posted here on the Tucson Citizen.

The article goes on to misinform by stating that the Chongqing UFO was sighted a day after the UFO that shut down the Xiaoshan Airport. It was sighted a week later.

The CNN comment section is buzzing about the UFO event being debunked. It was not. The photos published were debunked.

There has been no statement from China stating whether the object was, in fact, a military craft, missile, rocket or anything else.

After posting in the comments section twice about the incorrect span of time between UFO sightings, the article remains incorrect.

UPDATE 2:33 PM: The word “images” appears more in the article and a Google News search now reads: “Analyst: China UFO images likely fake”…but the Chongqing sighting still listed as a day later than the airport shutdown, not a week later.

UPDATE: 3:50 PM: Still no date correction for CNN…but it gets better! Pravda reports China UFO incident for a week ago! Pravda states it happened on July 14th!

“Last  week an Unidentified Flying Object disrupted traffic at Xiaoshan Airport in the PR China. The incident happened late last Wednesday night, July 14. 18 flights, involving 2,000 passengers were affected by the apparition, which was seen by several eye-witnesses (see photo) but which did not show up on the airport’s radar system.”

Left a comment asking them to correct the date.

It is way too early to start calling this event a conspiracy. It is also inappropriate.

The facts: Xiaoshan Airport was shut down on July 7, 2010 due to the sighting of an object in the sky. The object is currently unidentified (as far as we know) and it was flying or floating along in the sky. This qualifies the object as a UFO, yet a UFO does not automatically mean that it came from outer space.

Here is my opinion of why we should wait for news to surface directly from China, based on one undisputed fact:

China has earthly things to worry about at the moment.

OIL & WATER

Two oil pipes exploded last week at Dalian’s Xingang Harbor in northeast China. There have been five more explosions since then. At this writing, 24 oil cleaning vessels and more than 800 fishing boats are cleaning up the mess. According to this Xinhua News article, top leaders in China have turned their focus toward this matter of oil and water.

China is in the midst of typhoon season. Torrential rain and devastating floods are impacting the lives of millions of people, including in the Chongqing Municipality where the second UFO was said to be sighted. When the news of the second UFO sighting was released, this region in China began to brace for typhoon Conson.

Since the beginning of July, torrential rains and severe flooding have claimed the lives of 146 people. At last report 40 are missing. Rescue efforts are still underway. Flooding, rains, and typhoon Conson forced the evacuation of more than 1.3 million people in 11 provinces, mostly along the Yangtze River, according to the Ministry of Civil Affairs. Fears of additional flooding, dams breaking and mudslides are at the forefront at the moment. Check out the Xinhua News 2010 Flood Coverage.

Like oil and water, unfounded speculation and cold hard facts should not be mixed together. Leave it to the experts to separate fact from fiction. This separation takes time. We will be told something about the UFO eventually.

Wait for the facts to surface.

Around 8pm in the evening, a UFO was spotted hovering over Chongqing’s Shaping park for more than an hour. Eyewitnesses describe the same UFO that closed Hangzhou’s Xiaoshan Airport on July 7th. It appeared exactly one week after the last one, but it was observed in a different location.

A witness surnamed Chen gave an account to the media. “I stared at it and it did not move,” Chen said. “After hovering for an hour, the thing started to fly higher and finally out of people’s sight.”

A probe into the UFO incident that closed the airport last week has turned up nothing. A team of UFO experts from Shanghai and Beijing gathered in Hangzhou to assist with the investigation.

The experts aren’t receiving much cooperation from airport officials, though. The officials say again that the radar caught nothing and refuse to turn over radar images from July 7th.

Here in the United States, ABC News has begun to report on the matter:

http://abcnews.go.com/International/ufo-china-closes-airport-prompts-investigation/story?id=11159531&page=1

“No conclusion has yet been drawn,” Wang Jian, head of air traffic control with the Zhejiang branch of the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC), said.

The investigation has raised several questions, but no answers as of yet. What do we know thus far is that the airport was closed for about an hour due to an object in the skies over eastern China. The sighting of the object was enough to halt passenger boarding. It was enough to divert incoming airplanes to neighboring airports.

Although it was first reported that the UFO showed up on radar, it was reported this morning by Xinhua News that the object did not appear on radar.

An official stated with an air of certainty that there was a ‘military connection’ associated with the object. Several guesses have been released to media outlets since then to offer some sort of explanation for the incident. These include an intercontinental missile originating from the United States, which was only mentioned in early reports. The other suppositions include a private plane or a hot air balloon.

The CAAC employee said of the hypotheses, “We should first find out how the owner got the approval to fly the object, even a fire balloon needs to get the authority’s permission before lifting off.”

Of course, these rules only apply to craft of an earthly origin. Officials in China are playing down any rumors that it came from outer space. Instead, the focus of the continuing investigation is said to be on military and private aircrafts in the area at the time.

—————–

Our apologies that the site crashed shortly after the original posting this morning.

Join Paranormal Old Pueblo’s Facebook Page or Twitter feed to get up to the minute information from Paranormal Old Pueblo.

HANGZHOU, July 8 (Xinhua) — An unidentified flying object disrupted air traffic over Hangzhou, capital of east China’s Zhejiang Province, late Wednesday, the municipal government said Thursday. Xiaoshan Airport was closed after the UFO was detected at around 9 p.m. and some flights were rerouted to airports in Ningbo and Wuxi cities, said an airport spokesman.

The airport had resumed operations and more details would be revealed after an investigation, he said.

Editor: Han Jingjing

UPDATE 1:56PM 7/8/2010

Control tower officers detected the unidentified flying object with long-range visual instruments. They immediately ordered several incoming flights to land at airports in neighboring Ningbo and Wuxi, delaying passengers for nearly four hours, the report said.They used radar to monitor the position of the object

Persons on the ground in surrounding areas also saw the object in the sky. Reports varied between witnesses viewing bright, blinking or sparkling spots in the sky.

Hangzou resident Jia Xiaoying stated to the Global Times: “I saw an extremely bright spot very high up in the sky around 8 pm. The yellow spot immediately slid through the sky and disappeared within a second.”

A government source stated that it could have been a private airplane, but police and other agencies in China continue to investigate.