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 an airliner (no. 2606) traveling from Beijing to Urumqi. At 21:35, while flying over the Qijiaojing area in Hami, Xinjiang, passengers observed a flying object outside their windows. The object was described as being approximately the size of a basketball, spinning at high speed, and emitting light like a searchlight. It flew alongside the aircraft before changing direction and splitting into two distinct parts: a smaller ball above and a bean-shaped object below. Passengers also reported seeing a green ring of light surrounding the object. Researchers at the Institute of Atmospheric Physics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, specifically Zou Yousuo, provided an explanation for the event. They concluded that the sighting was a plasma fireball. According to their hydrokinetic theory, the phenomenon resulted from the electric discharge of lightning and seismic rock, combined with the violent oscillation of electromagnetism in the air. The researchers explained that the plasma was formed by electrons, ions, and unionized neutral particles, and that the green ring of light was likely the result of an electric discharge from a high-frequency magnetic field.