Thaindian.com has been covering the story in detail in English.

Alien object disrupts air traffic in China

An unidentified flying object (UFO) disrupted air traffic over Hangzhou, capital of east China’s Zhejiang province, authorities said Thursday.
Xiaoshan Airport was closed after the UFO was detected late Wednesday and some flights were rerouted to airports in Ningbo and Wuxi cities, Xinhua quoted an airport spokesman as saying.

UFO Sighting Closes Down Major Airport in China

According to witness accounts and pictures of the object, it was said to have looked like a “twinkling spot” which disappeared very quickly. Stunned witnesses claim to have seen a fiery, comet-like ball in the sky, but airport workers stated that the UFO was only visible on radar and would have been impossible to see with the naked eye.

Just a few hours before the airport closing, however, many residents of Hangzhou claim to have seen a glowing object which was hovering in the sky and making odd movements. A city bus driver by the name of Yu stated that the object moved down toward the ground for about 6 minutes dragging a comet like tail, and then changed direction quickly.

UFO In China Baffles All, Government Stands Clueless

The unidentified flying object sighted on Wednesday in the Chinese skies continues to baffle the officials investigating the case. After the radars picked up the object in their track path, all passengers were stopped from boarding flights. The military officials were also called for assistance by the airport authorities of Xiaoshan airport.

People’s Daily Online originally printed this photograph purportedly of the UFO in their article about the closure: Flights diverted, delayed as UFO detected hovering. You can see the image at full-size in the article.

The video above has been published all over the internet as live footage of the UFO, however it has been confirmed as a video taken earlier of a flying object which has already been identified.

UFO China News : Latest China Xiaoshan Airport UFO Picture // Current

The video footage is actually a “Kazakhstan UFO Video”, which was videotaped over the capital city of Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan 30th June 2010.

UFO video footage was later on identified as Russian Soyuz rocket which was blasted off on 30th June 2010 carrying a new robotic cargo ship filled with tons of supplies for astronauts living on the International Space Station.

The same site has posted a number of photographs that they believe are legitimately of the UFO over the airport last week. You can see the images full-size on the article: UFO China News : Latest China Xiaoshan Airport UFO Picture // Current

An announcement by the Chinese government is expected today.

UPDATE 23 August

UFO & Paranormal News says that:

One of the heads of China’s famous Purple Mountain Astronomical Observatory, Prof. Wang Sichao, has gone public admitting the UFOs are real and aliens are visiting Earth and that the observatory has observed their craft many times. The admittance of UFO reality was made yesterday within a official speech entitled tellingly ‘China’s UFO truth’… In the event that these aliens do not come in peace, he stressed they are not gods and have flaws and thus we can possibly defend ourselves.

I’ve yet to find a reference to this in English in any journal not specifically focused on extra-terrestrial visitations.

However, a few days ago on the 21st of July, an update to this article was posted:
forgetomori » UFO over Hangzhou, China: a long exposé

Bruce Maccabee takes a look at the photos and confirms that “the images are consistent with being the result of taking nighttime, ‘long’ exposure photographs of a helicopter with a searchlight”. As for what actually caused the airport shutdown, Maccabee is, like Oberg and everyone else, at a loss from the lack of reliable information. “It may have been a ‘military vehicle’ as suggested by recent stories or something else. … We may never know”.

We will fly from Daytona Beach, on Florida’s Atlantic coast to Catalina Island, in the Pacific, about 25 miles west of the Californian coastline. Our planned route is Dunnellon – Daytona Beach – Destin – Baton-Rouge – Houston – Sweetwater – El Paso – Prescott – Chino – Santa Catalina

On the way home we’ll fly Whiteman – Santa Maria – Las Vegas – Sedona – Roswell – Georgetown – Lafayette – Pensacola – Daytona Beach – Dunnellon.

We will organize events at our stops to promote General Aviation and pass our message. Contact us if you’re anywhere near one of our stops and want to meet us or help us with local organization.

And the exciting news is they’ve started! They took off from Dunnelon last week and did a videolog recapping the first day:

They are in Houston now and updating Flying Across America as they go. There’s a write-up of each day so you can tag along vicariously and there’s a Facebook page you can follow Flying Across America’s Photos which has dozens of photographs of each day.

Do I even need to mention how insanely jealous I am? But it is so much fun to follow along with all the details. Vincent and Jason are posting a wide range of great content, ranging from planning and weather to flying experiences to photographs from all over the US and visits to interesting museums and air shows.

Here’s my favourite shot from today, Day 4 of their journey:

How can you not love these guys?

I hope they are having a wonderful, wonderful time and I will be following the rest of the trip on the Flying Across America site and the Facebook page.

If you happen to be located at one of their stops, be sure to arrange to meet them – and tell them hello from me!

Watching the crash

Me and my mom were in the car waiting at the traffic light on Ingra Street and we heard the plane. “That plane sounds really low,” my mom said. As I agreed with her I saw the plane come over the Ingra House. It clipped the top and then I saw the plane rock back and forth. I looked out the opposite window and it was still shaking. I was thinking “there is no was that this plane is going to go over that small yellow house.” Then, right as I was thinking that, me, my mom, and my brother saw it hit the ground. We all gasped. Right that second my mom pulled out her phone and called 911. As she was calling them, I was also on the phone with my dad. My dad was worried sick. My sister had no clue about this because she was at gymnastics at Arctic Gymnastics.

Kids flying Delta take off from MSP, land in wrong cities | StarTribune.com

Nine-year-old Kieren Kershaw, who was flying from Spokane, Wash., to visit his grandparents, knew something was wrong when he saw an airport sign that said Cleveland. “My mouth dropped open,” he said. I tried to stay calm. I didn’t want to freak out.”

Via The Wings Stayed On!: When Otto Goes Bad…

Acronym list… – PPRuNe Forums

FPL (foolish place to land?)
LARS (Swedish guy?)
GPS – Grown-up’s Playstation System
IFR – I Follow Roads
IMC – I’ve Mucked up and can’t C

BBC News – Frosty welcome for lucky plane stowaway

He survived because the plane flew at a low altitude to avoid stormy weather.

The man apparently got under a fence at Schwechat airport in Vienna and climbed into the undercarriage of the first plane he saw without knowing its destination.

A Closer Look: 747-8F engine damaged in Victorville

7 Videos of Airbus A380 testing

The test program of the Airbus A380 did last for 15 months and was well documented. I picked the best YouTube video for you. You’ll see the Airbus A380 in extreme flight attitudes but also extreme take-offs and landings, plus some destructive tests of engines and brakes…

Did you know there’s a Facebook fan page for Fear of Landing?

Facebook | Fear of Landing

If you use Facebook, you can “like” the page and you’ll get notifications of the aviation links I post in the right sidebar (no more than one a day) and new posts on this blog. I’ll be adding photographs as well. If there’s something else you think might be fun to include, do let me know!

JetBlue Pilot Threatens To Crash Plane Leaving From Boston If Girlfriend Doesn’t Reconcile – wbztv.com

The pilot, who has not been identified, was taken into custody at Logan for allegedly sending an email to his girlfriend in which he said if they did not reconcile their relationship, he was going to crash the plane.

The officer was questioned by the FBI at the airport, and taken to a Boston hospital for a psychiatric evaluation.

I know it isn’t really funny but the response on PPRuNe was classic:
JetBlue Pilot Threatens To Crash Plane – PPRuNe Forums

The TSA / FAA / Government knee-jerk reaction to this will be great!

“Pilots Banned From Having Significant Others”

Also found on PPRuNe: Multiple bird strike and how not to handle it:

I was shouting at the computer as I watched this. By the end, I was banging my head against the keyboard. Simply unbelievable.

Cockpit Conversation: Simple Security

I thought this was clever for straightforward access.

It allows visiting pilots to get into the lounge without fuss while offering a clear signal to non-pilots that this is a restricted area. No, it won’t keep anyone out who seriously wants to get in but stops it from being treated as a free-for-all.

And this is an oldie but a goodie: Pouring ice tea while flying inverted:

I’ve seen this clip before but it never ceases to make me smile.

If you are looking for a more serious collection of links, take a look at last week’s post on Golf Hotel Whiskey: Best of the Web.

From the Southwest Airlines website:

Date unveiled: April 23, 2010
Process time: 8 days
Number of People: 32 over 3 shifts
Paint colors: 16
Total gallons: Approximately 46
Premask (stencil outline): 15 boxes or approximately 150 different pieces to create the logo

The challenge of this plane was to recreate the Flag Logo without the use of tools, using only the drawing for reference and the stencils for outline, while at the same time making both sides exactly symmetrical.

Slightly odd note at MetaFilter though, where someone points out that the plane being built is a 737-800 whereas the plane being painted is a 737-700.

Watch it again. The plane they build has two big chunky doors right above the wing. (They’re very conspicuous.) The plane they paint only has one big chunky above-the-wing door. (It’s very conspicuous after the paint has gone on.) Also, the plane they paint is conspicuously shorter. As well it should be, since it’s a different plane.

I suppose it’s easier to get all the footage as a composite but I’m a little bit disappointed.

But not so disappointed that I’m not going to watch it again!

Connor, my son, was supposed to fly to England to return to school after his Easter break and his flights were one of the many cancelled. The Saratoga was parked in England so we couldn’t transport him underneath the cloud and so we decided to wait it out until commercial aviation was back to normal. Unbelievably, he is still here because we’ve been unable to come to a resolution with Thomson’s (TUI) who seem to believe that it is not their responsibility to provide him with a new flight.

You can read about it on BBC News: Volcano ash: Airlines dispute passenger rights. As quoted in the article, TUI are telling us we should accept a refund and purchase a new flight at the current extravagant prices. Meanwhile, Connor is missing important revision for his GCSEs which he’ll be taking in just a few weeks.

I’ve learned a lot about home schooling in the past week, primarily that I never wish to consider home-schooling as a full-time option. I’m pretty sure Connor agrees.

Anyway, while I bone up on my GCSE-level poetry analysis and pretend that I understand the chemistry questions, you can find out more about the effects of the volcano eruption on these great sites.

The Big Picture has a collection of breath-taking photographs and Sulako posted video of the volcano taken from a local flight on Monday.

An amusing and educational video on YouTube attempts to help news reporters in their attempts to name of the volcano. In a similar vein, the New York Times has a fun article asking random subway users to attempt to pronounce it.

Aviatrix writes about the nitty gritty volcanic ash and why it is a risk and Matthew Stibbe takes a look at flying through an ash cloud.

For General Aviation, there were positive aspects to the closures. Plastic Pilot asks whether This cloud is THE opportunity VFR pilots are waiting for, Max Trescott points out that Volcanic Ash Clouds Present Unprecedented Opportunity for General Aviation Pilots and Runway Repairs and Aluwings has photographs of Touch and Goes at Zurich.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to practise my French verb conjugations.

Totally amazing. It’s hard for me to imagine ever having the skill required to appear to fly that badly. It’s awesome. He’s got incredible control.

The pilot is Kyle Franklin from Franklin’s Flying Circus & Airshow. He is married to the beautiful Amanda Younkin, who manages Franklin’s Flying Circus and Younkin Airshows. Kyle and Bobby Younkin are the pilots – although Amanda can fly as well. When she was featured in the 2010 Bombshell calendar, she was the only babe to fly the planes as well as pose in front of them.

(Hey, another great gift idea! You can buy the calendar online at My Bombshells)

A high resolution copy of film can be downloaded from their website along with a dozen other clips of the circus in action at Franklin’s Flying Circus Video Page. This particular clip is the one marked as “Comedy Act Video Download” and worth watching full-screen on the biggest monitor you can find.

The website also includes details of Jimmy Franklin and Bobby Younkin, who tragically crashed at the Saskatchewan Centennial Air Show in 2005. Their air show team, Masters of Disaster was one of the most sought after in the industry at the time of the accident.

I enjoyed reading the short essays but was especially entranced by the descriptions of Kyle Franklin growing up with airshows as a standard backdrop of his childhood:

Kyle grew up living in a hangar-house in Ruidoso, NM. The hangar soon became his favorite playground as well as a place where he and his father shared quality time servicing Waco’s, Super Cubs, and the Aerostar. Kyle’s first airplane ride was four weeks after his birth. Father Jimmy taught him how to fly when he was eight years old and later taught him aerobatics. As a toddler, Kyle seized every opportunity to wing-walk in Dad’s Waco Mystery Ship as it taxied on about on the ground at air shows. Kyle took his first airborne wing-walk at age 14, and just three years later he was wing-walking professionally at age 17.

I am definitely hoping to see more of Kyle, Bobby and Amanda and Franklin’s Flying Circus & Airshow.

I couldn’t help but grin at his blogpost about the unexpected popularity of his video.
Video…only a tad more popular than I thought…

***UPDATE***At the time of writing this I have just received a youtube honor…something that’s fairly close to impossible unless it was shown on TV, someone gets hurt, or it’s a music video. This week, thanks to everyone viewing the new Airventure video, it ranked #83 of the top 100 viewed videos for youtube. That mean, out of every video viewed on youtube, the new Airventure video is #83. Thanks again for everyone who watched!

It’s been five days since I’ve uploaded the Airventure 2009 review video, and the view count…ratings…and comments are off the charts. It has exceeded expectations twenty fold! At the time of writing it has 21,633 views. THAT IS INSANE! I was not expecting anything more than maybe 1,200 views…maybe. To quote my father, “It just keeps feeding itself.”

As of today, the video is up to 658,636 views and has a 5-star rating. It really does deserve it, Slick has put a huge amount of effort into editing this video and it is honestly one of best I’ve seen come out of Airventure this year – including professional clips.

You can also read about his adventures at the airshow in a day-by-day review he posted to the EAA Airventure 2009 Post Review – ARC Air Discussion Forums. He took 1,400 photographs in addition to the video footage and included some of the best ones in his review.

The next Airventure will be July 26 – August 1 in 2010 and after seeing Slick Aviation’s video and photographs, I’m tempted to try to plan a trip to Oshkosh next summer.

Bird strike! The moment 200 starlings were sucked into passenger jet engine on take-off | Mail Online

‘It was like a scene from the Hitchcock movie The Birds. One second all was clear, and the next thing you saw were these birds swarming over the plane,’ said an onlooker.

It is thought more than 200 starlings were sucked into the right engine as the Boeing jet approached 200mph.

Others dented the fuselage but thankfully did not pierce it. Their splattered remains could be seen on the plane later.

Houston News – Superthief – page 1

Dyson realized something was wrong driving back to his shop when he saw the Bonanza scream past him along the runway, taking off with the cockpit door still swinging open. He called Pearah, realized he’d been had and called the police.

Meanwhile, Calhoun flew the plane about two miles east, according to Dyson, then reversed course west for another three miles before crashing into a strand of trees. Uninjured, Calhoun could’ve simply escaped like he’d done for years, except his truck was still at the airport.

STOL Contest in Valdez, Alaska : Sulako’s Blog

Take a close look at the little yellow plane at 1:30 into the video for a gentle little prop strike right at the start of his takeoff roll. I’m amused / horrified that the pilot chose to continue the takeoff despite kissing the runway, but maybe I’m getting cowardly in my old age.

Above the Clouds. Sky-Viators in CG Illustrations. | Templates.com

This post is devoted for all those who are real fans of aviation, for those who find the point of life in it, for all those who are not afraid of the depth of the sky. The dream to fly above the clouds in the altitudes where the air is thin is not for everyone, only those who are strong in their spirit are able to perform it and they dare to do it.

HowStuffWorks “How Air Force One Works”

Air Force One is a prominent symbol of the United States in general and the office of the presidency in particular. Whenever the president travels overseas or across the country, he takes his high-tech deluxe jumbo jet with him. On September 11th, the president’s plane showed that it was much more than an executive jet — it became a mobile bunker when all ground positions seemed vulnerable to attack.

grande nef | aviation section | aeronautical salon | 1909 | 0004 | Flight Archive

Among other full-sized machines are the Delagrange and the Bleriot biplanes — the latter a 3-seater — the Bleriot, R.E.P., and Antoinette monoplanes, Kapferer’s double monoplane, and the Breguet aeroplane-helicopter. The Wright aeroplane is represented by a fullsized model, but the others above-mentioned are actual machines, and form a collection which is, it will be seen, quite as representative as could be expected under the circumstances, and remarkably interesting to boot.

Vincent (Plastic Pilot) and Jason (MzeroA) have successfully launched their new website: http://www.flyingacrossamerica.com. They are starting in Florida and aiming to make their way west to my home-state and visit Catalina Island – I used to go to Catalina on the ferry for sports matches when I was in highschool. I didn’t even know they had an airfield! I’m very much looking forward to reading the GA adventures that Vincent and Jason enjoy on their travels. You can follow the journey on their website:
Flying Across America

We found our first stop: We’ve been invited by the guys at DestinJet, the premier FBO at Destin, on the Florida panhandle. With their brand new 6,000 sq ft executive terminal and state of the art facilities for passengers and crew, Destin Jet combines the Glory Days of aviation with every latest technology and service. They also accepted to refuel our Cessna 150 for free which is a great help to reduce our costs.

I have to admit that this looks like a lot of fun:
Cluster Ballooning: 100 Helium Balloons Strapped to a Lawn Chair

Sure, it looks like being carried off by a multicoloured raspberry, but would you care about such style points if you were floating coolly on a cloud – and with so little keeping you up there? Prepare for lift-off as we take an aerial tour through this extraordinary and breathtaking form of ballooning.

Rob Mark of Jetwhine reviews Artful Flying by Michael Maya Charles, thoughtfully sorting out my Christmas present for the aviator in my life:
Artful Flying – Jetwhine: Aviation Buzz and Bold Opinion

Artful Flying will bust your chops if you’re simply an airplane driver because it talks to readers about the philosophy of flying the way the old guys – and girls – used to do it. No, the physics of flying hasn’t really changed, but the art of flying has, at least in the sense that flying as an art seems to have a lot of its luster over the past 20 years..

Delayed and cancelled flights are a standard hazard for air travel but some of the recent reasons have been quite bizarre:
Copilot peeing in public cancels JAL flight from Honolulu | Gadling.com

Of all the reasons to have your flight canceled, I’m pretty sure this one is high on the “no frikkin way!” list.

On the other hand, that’s got to be better than kicking all the passengers off the plane and flying alone:
AMS: 737 Pilot Has Pax Removed And Flies Out Empty – Civil Aviation Forum | Airliners.net

For the first time in the history of Schiphol, a pilot had his entire plane evacuated after a dozen passengers behaved badly. The aircraft then left empty, and the passengers were sent home.

And last but not least, two videos from last month which hit the top of my list of “So glad I was not piloting that one”. Note neither of these accidents resulted in serious injury:

To be honest, it’s the commentary that really gets me. “That kinda blows” ?! Yeah, kinda…