PRC: Scientists Identify Xinjiang UFO as Plasma Fireball

This document is a press report from Xinhua, dated April 20, 1988, regarding a UFO sighting that occurred on March 18, 1988. The incident involved passengers on airliner number 2606, traveling from Beijing to Urumqi, who observed an unidentified flying object in the Qijiaojing area of Hami, Xinjiang. The object was described as being approximately the size of a basketball, spinning at high speed, and emitting light like a searchlight. Witnesses reported that the object flew alongside the aircraft before changing direction and splitting into two distinct parts: a smaller ball above and a bean-shaped object below, surrounded by a green ring of light. Researchers at the Institute of Atmospheric Physics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, specifically Zou Yousuo, provided an explanation for the event. They identified the object as a plasma fireball. According to their hydrokinetic theory, the phenomenon was caused by an electric discharge resulting from lightning and seismic rock, combined with violent oscillations of electromagnetism in the air. The researchers explained that the plasma was formed by electrons, ions, and unionized neutral particles, and that the observed green ring of light was likely the result of an electric discharge from a high-frequency magnetic field.