On 7 July 2010, Hangzhou Xiaoshan International Airport — one of China’s busiest — closed for about an hour after radar detected an unidentified object. Dozens of flights were diverted. What the object was remains unresolved.
Hangzhou matters because it is a modern aviation case where an unidentified radar contact caused a real airport closure and mass diversion — yet the object identity was never settled.
On 7 July 2010, an unidentified object was detected on radar near Hangzhou Xiaoshan International Airport. The contact prompted the airport to close for approximately an hour.
Documented
The radar contact and the airport closure are documented.
The closure forced dozens of incoming and departing flights to be diverted. Passengers on the ground reported seeing a bright light in the sky.
Documented
The flight diversions and the ground light reports are documented.
Chinese aviation authorities acknowledged the disruption, but the official statements were limited and no full radar data was publicly released. The object identity remains open.
Debated
The object identity — aircraft, atmospheric, or unknown — is contested.
Widely circulated images and video of the event are not authenticated and should not be treated as evidence. The case rests on the radar contact and the documented closure.
Unverified
Viral imagery, and any extraterrestrial origin, are unverified.
These sources do different jobs: CCTV is the contemporary reporting, the CAAC record is the official account, and the Wikipedia entry compiles the later record. None identifies the object.
The Chinese state-media account.
The aviation-authority record of the closure.
The later compiled account.