On July 7, 2010, an unidentified aerial object forced Hangzhou Xiaoshan International Airport to halt all departures; 18 flights were grounded or diverted to Ningbo and Wuxi. A flight crew first detected the object at 8:40 p.m. during approach. Chinese authorities concluded it 'may have been an aircraft, possibly military,' but never issued a definitive identification.

Residents photographed what appeared to be a hovering object emitting golden light and a comet-like tail in the afternoon hours before the closure. Hangzhou meteorological authorities attributed those afternoon photographs to aircraft light reflection, while Beijing Planetarium experts pointed to strobe lights. A separate civilian UFO expert panel from Beijing and Shanghai concluded the object was 'at least not an ordinary aircraft.' Operations resumed within one hour.