Shanghai Airport Mysteriously Shut Down
Friday, I lifted my father’s suitcase into a beaten up Shanghai taxi, gave him a kiss, shut the door and waved as the car pulled away. After a week in Shanghai, he was headed to Pudong International Airport to catch a flight back home. Pudong Airport, on Shanghai’s east bank, is the biggest and only international airport in China’s biggest city. His flight to Chicago was scheduled to leave at 5pm, and being the disciplined flyer that he is, he left for the airport 4 hours before his time of departure. Little did my father know that an hour after he left, and just as he would arrive at Pudong, the government would shut down the entire airport for the afternoon. According to a Reuters story Friday, all outbound flights from Pudong were delayed and all inbound flights were rerouted to other Chinese airports. No announcement or warning was given ahead of time and none of Saturday’s Chinese papers reported the story. Even a Japanese passenger flight headed for Pudong was unaware of the closure and was forced to turn around mid-flight. An official of Pudong airport said anonymously Friday that the Pudong airspace was ordered closed by the Central Military Commission. When asked why, the official replied, “It’s a state secret.” Later, it was confirmed through Reuters and a Hong Kong news outlet that the closure was due to secretive military exercises being conducted in Hangzhou Bay, south of Shanghai. Still, no Chinese officials or media have confirmed any of this. Normally, when an airport is closed for military purposes, all airports are notified in advance. Friday, this was not the case. Pudong Airport was reopened at around 5pm though my father’s flight had already been canceled due to “poor weather conditions in Chicago.” He got on a flight to Los Angeles instead. Outside of China, the secret shut down of a country’s busiest airport would have been a huge news story. Here, it goes unreported. And for all those concerned, my father made it home.
•Reuters: China Mysteriously Shuts Shanghai Airport