An Air China jet was forced to make an emergency landing after experiencing a large bang. Upon landing, the nose cone was found dented, and it was suspected that the plane collided with something, but just what caused the damage is still under debate.
Air China flight CA4307 left Chengdu on the morning of June 4, headed for Guangzhou. According to China Daily, Air China reported the possible collision occurred at 10:11 am. The pilot contacted the Chengdu airport, and returned to Chengdu for an emergency landing.
China Daily reports the damage was due to a collision with a bird. However, The Aviation Herald says a bird strike was ruled out “due to a lack of blood, feathers or any other bird remains.” A couple of pilots on The Aviation Herald website have commented that they experienced similar situations. In those cases the damage was due to a damaged radar in the cone, causing the nose cone to collapse.
According to The Sun, experts concur the damage was not due to a bird. They say the plane’s elevation was too high for birds, and suggest another possibility could be a drone. The Sun says Chinese authorizes have yet to officially respond on the cause of the accident.
However, a report released last week on the near collision with “flat, silver discs” reported by pilots in England is fresh in people’s minds. So it is no wonder there is speculation that a UFO could be the cause of the damage to the Chinese plane.
Nick Pope, a former UFO investigator for Britain’s Ministry of Defence, told The Sun:
Cases like this show that whatever people believe about UFOs, there are serious air safety issues here. MoD and CAA files contain dozens of reports of near misses between UFOs and commercial aircraft. It’s only a matter of time before there’s a catastrophe. From the look of the photos, this disturbing incident came very close to blowing this aircraft out of the sky.---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Whatever struck the aircraft will have left evidence. Analysis of the damaged nose cone should reveal microscopic traces of whatever struck the aircraft, or possibly even larger pieces of debris. So this is a solvable mystery. The only question is, will the notoriously secretive Chinese authorities reveal the truth about what happened?
