A Chinese airport temporarily closed on Tuesday amid fears that one of the passenger planes could collide with an unidentified flying object (UFO) that was seen in the area, local media reported on Wednesday.
Baotou Airport (BAV) in Inner Mongolia in the northern region of China, shut down for approximately one hour and delayed the arrival of three flights from Shanghai and Beijing. They flew in circles around the airport until the airways were cleared and the UFO had disappeared. Another two flights were diverted to Ordos and Taiyuan, which are nearby cities.
According to reports, air traffic controllers spotted the UFO on a radar but failed to make radio contact, which prompted them to warn airport operations. “To guarantee security, aircraft had to land at secondary airports. Otherwise, it may have led to collision,” the Sun quoted a spokeswoman as saying.
Tuesday’s incident was the third such incident in China recently. In July, Xioshan International airport in Zhejiang province was forced to temporarily shut down because of a UFO sighting, although it was later reported that the sighted object was part of a nearby military test.
In late June, another UFO sighting in Xinjiang province prompted similar actions.
