Documents / FOIA release
This Foreign Broadcast Information Service cable was relayed through the Joint Chiefs of Staff on 20 April 1988, and the Central Intelligence Agency released it in August 1997. It carries a Xinhua English-language report on a UFO that passengers aboard airliner No. 2606, flying from Beijing to Urumqi, saw near Hami, Xinjiang, on 18 March. Scientists at the Institute of Atmospheric Physics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences concluded that the object was a plasma fireball spinning at high speed in the atmosphere.
Read from the scan by GLM-OCR; expect the odd misread word.
INQUIRE=DOC5D ITEM NO=00291188 ENVELOPE RTTUZYUW RUEKJCS3206 1112357-UUUU--RUEALGX. ZNR UUUUU HEADER R 202357Z APR 88 FM JCS WASHINGTON DC INFO RUHQHQA/USCINCPAC HONOLULU HI RUEALGX/SAFE R 202334Z APR 88 FM FBIS OKINAWA JA TO RUCWAAA/FBIS RESTON VA RHHMBRA/CINCPACFLT PEARL HARBOR HI RUADJNA/DET 4 FTD YOKOTA AB JA RUCLACC/CDR4THPSYOPGP FT BRAGG NC//SB// RUDMNOP/NAVOPINTCEN SUITLAND MD RUDOMKB/FBIS LONDON UK//BBC// RUDOMKE/FBIS LONDON UK RUEBHAA/STORAGE CENTER FBIS WASHINGTON DC RUEKJCS/DEFINTAGNCY WASH DC RUETIAM/NPC FT GEO G MEADE MD RUHQHQA/COMIPAC HONOLULU HI RUHQHQA/USCINCPAC HONOLULU HI RUMJHK/FBIS HONG KONG ACCT FBOW-EWDK BT CONTROLS UNCLAS 1T/LD UNCLAS 1T/LD SUBJ REF LD201354 ANSWERIN PRC: SCIENTISTS IDENTIFY XINJIANG UFO AS PLASMA FIREBALL OW202334 BEIJING XINHUA IN ENGLISH 0548 GM~20 APR 88 ((TEXT)) BEIJING, APRIL 20 (X NHUA)--THE UNIDENTIFIED FLYING OBJECT (UFO) SPOTTED IN XINJIANG LAST MONTH WAS A "PLASMA FIREBALL SPINNING AT HIGH SPEED I THE ATMOSPHERE", ACCORDING TO SCIENTISTS AT THE INSTITUTE OF ATMOSPHERIC PHYSICS OF THE CHINESE ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. IT WAS REPORTED THAT AT 21:35 ON MARCH 18, AS THE NO. 2606 AIRLINER FROM BEIJING TO URUMQI WAS APPROACHING THE QIJIAOJING AREA IN HAMI IN THE XINJIANG UYGUR AUTO OMOUS REGION, ## UNCLASSIFIED Approved for Release Date AUG 1997
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FOIA release, from the cia-readingroom collection. The PDF is mirrored here; the original link is above. The text was read from the page images by GLM-OCR; expect the odd misread word. 2 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.