UFO Causes Flight Diversion at Beijing Capital Airport

Earlier this month we noted two sightings of unidentified flying objects over Zhejiang Province, one of which resulted in some flights being diverted from Hangzhou’s Xiaoshan Airport. Now Beijing is getting in on the act – according to today’s Global Times, “An Unidentified Flying Object allegedly appeared in the city night sky on September 21, causing an in-flight civil aircraft to fly back to its departure airport.”

According to the report, the flight in question was Shandong Air SC1159, a Boeing 737-800 traveling from Shandong’s capital Jinan to Beijing. The flight took off from Jinan at 9.05pm, but after reaching Beijing turned around and returned to its departure point. The Shandong Air client service center stated, “At that time we heard the news that there was a UFO over Beijing and our plane had to go back,” although another airline employee reportedly claimed the return had been caused by a “military exercise.”

The Global Times report says the UFO was also sighted from the ground in Beijing, citing “Taiwanese graduate Celine Lin” as a witness. Lin claims she saw something over Gulou: “An object traveling west to east at high speed ascended and disappeared. The trajectory was quite weird. It didn't fly straight.”

An online forum allegedly also discussed illuminated objects over Xidan.

Online rumors that the figure pictured above was spotted on the night of September 21 playing pool in a bar just off Nanluogu Xiang have been denied by police.