AIR PICTURE — CHAGRIN FALLS, OH — 2026-08-16
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: Quiet day — traffic ran 76% below the 7-day average, with 146 contacts logged against a baseline of 616. The skies were present but not exactly crowded.
NOTABLE TRAFFIC
AMX044 [0D0A9A] — AeroMéxico at 37,000 ft, 519 kts, heading 57°. Fastest contact of the day and carrying an ICAO hex that doesn't correspond to any recognized national allocation. Mexico's prefix is 0D, so AMX044 is plausible — but the anomalous hex warrants a note. Watch this one.
AFR377 [3949EB] — Air France, French-registered, transiting at 21,450 ft heading 88°. Flagged by the system against a government/military prefix list. Likely a coincidental callsign match; Air France 377 is probably just a Paris flight having a perfectly ordinary Sunday over northeastern Ohio.
DHK819 [408142] — UK-registered, 36,000 ft, heading 235°. DHL Aviation. Nothing sinister — just a British cargo aircraft doing what British cargo aircraft do.
JZA735 [C00B86] — Jazz Aviation out of Canada, very low at 725 ft and heading 230°. Likely on approach to CLE. Canadian registration confirmed.
AAL3146, ENY3454, FFT2184, JBU2768, UAL457, JZA735 — Multiple contacts clustered near 41.418°N, 81.845°W at 700–800 ft, various headings of 230°. That's a stack of arrivals into Cleveland Hopkins. Busy little corner of airspace.
ANOMALIES
Four no-callsign high-altitude contacts — A8E3B3 (34,250 ft), A11EB7 (30,100 ft), A01F13 (26,875 ft), and A36636 (39,000 ft) are all squawking Mode S but broadcasting no flight ID. Theoretically routine. Collectively, less so. Filed for awareness.
AMX680 [0D1030] — A second AeroMéxico hex with an unrecognized ICAO allocation. Not in today's traffic list as an active contact, but flagged by the anomaly engine. Noted.
Traffic volume — Today's count of 146 is 76% below the 7-day average of 616. No single hour explains it; the deviation was consistent throughout the day.
PATTERN NOTES
An unusual number of regular flights failed to appear — DAL2594, DAL915, DAL1388, SWA1722, UAL601, UAL1803, and roughly two dozen others are AWOL relative to their weekly patterns. No single operator accounts for the gap; the absence is broad-based. Cause unknown from picture data alone — weather, schedule changes, or a very slow Sunday are all candidates.
Dominant flow remains east-to-west at cruise altitudes, consistent with normal mid-continental routing. Nothing structurally unusual about what did show up — it's the volume that's the story today.
END OF DAILY AIR PICTURE