AIR PICTURE — CHAGRIN FALLS, OH — 2026-06-24
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: Exceptionally quiet day overhead — 233 contacts logged against a 7-day average of 2,597, representing a 91% shortfall. The sky was technically open for business; business largely declined the invitation.
NOTABLE TRAFFIC
- BAW8K (UK registration, 40688B) — 39,000 ft, heading 058° at 506 kts. British Airways threading northeast across the picture. The Crown's representative for the day. - BAW186 (UK registration, 406F72) — 39,000 ft, heading 056° at 522 kts. A second British Airways contact. They sent two. - THY5YR (Netherlands-registered, 4BA94C) — 31,000 ft, heading 065° at 520 kts. Turkish Airlines hardware on a transatlantic routing, ICAO registered through the Netherlands block. - TIV750 [AA1C19] — 47,000 ft. Above standard commercial ceiling. No further details available, but someone is having a very good altitude day. - N951CP — 1,400 ft, 73 kts, heading 083°. Low and slow near Chagrin Falls proper. Possibly admiring the waterfall. - PDT5862 — 7,850 ft, 253 kts, heading 229°. Piedmont regional on descent profile, the closest thing to local airline traffic today.
ANOMALIES
- [A5CC15] — 119,300 feet. No callsign. Read that again: one hundred nineteen thousand feet. Mode S transponder active, no flight ID broadcast. This is well above any commercial ceiling and consistent with high-altitude reconnaissance or experimental operations. Flagged. Watched. - Fourteen additional no-callsign contacts detected at cruise altitudes (30,000–43,000 ft) throughout the day. Transponders squawking Mode S, flight IDs withheld. Routine for some corporate traffic; collectively notable at this volume. - CLX91W [4D0119] and two other contacts carry ICAO hex codes outside any known national allocation range. Origin indeterminate. - [38237A] — French-registered, 43,000 ft, no callsign broadcast. - AFR6739 [3951C2] — French registration, flagged against government/military prefix list. Present at 35,000 ft.
PATTERN NOTES
Traffic volume is the story today. The 91% drop from the 7-day average (2,597 contacts) is stark and uniform across all operator categories — majors, regionals, cargo, and generals all absent in bulk. Over 400 unique regular flights expected from historical patterns did not appear. No single carrier accounts for the gap; the reduction is system-wide. Cause unknown from air picture data alone. The airspace was largely a formality today.
END OF DAILY AIR PICTURE