◆ CASE FILEThe facts, corroborated
The Xinjiang Airliner Fireball (1988)
At 21.35 on 18 March 1988 passengers on airliner No. 2606 from Beijing to Urumqi saw a basketball-sized light "beaming like a searchlight" fly alongside the plane over Hami in Xinjiang, then change direction and split in two inside a green ring. A month later China's state news agency reported that scientists had identified it as a plasma fireball. This is the record of what passengers reported, not a verdict on what flew beside the plane.
◆ THE SHORT VERSION
- The Xinjiang Airliner Fireball (1988) is a reported UAP case in Qijiaojing area, Hami, Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region (in flight), China, 18 March 1988, 21:35.
- Passengers on airliner No. 2606 from Beijing to Urumqi reported a basketball-sized object beaming like a searchlight flying alongside the plane, Xinhua reported.
- The object reportedly changed direction and split in two, a smaller ball above and a bean-shaped one below, inside a green ring of light.
- Scientists at the Chinese Academy of Sciences' Institute of Atmospheric Physics called it a plasma fireball spinning at high speed, according to the same report.
- The only record is that Xinhua item as relayed by the US Foreign Broadcast Information Service, and nobody on the flight is named.
- For this case Fractured Realities holds 1 distinct source.
- The archive grades it L0 · SINGLE ACCOUNT — the archive holds one account of it, from a single source.
Counts are resolved totals of what sources say, computed 2026-10-03; the reported details above are claims in the record, not findings. A record of reports, not a verdict on what happened.
EVENT DATE
18 March 1988, 21:35
LOCATION
Qijiaojing area, Hami, Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region (in flight) · China
COORDS
43.49°N 91.47°E
INDEPENDENCE
L0 · SINGLE ACCOUNT
SOURCES
1 distinct
CLAIMANTS
0
STATUS
Known from released government records
NUMBERS COMPUTED 2026-10-03 · RESOLVED COUNTS, NOT A VERDICT
.jpg?width=480)
