AIR PICTURE — CHAGRIN FALLS, OH — 2026-08-17
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: Unusually quiet day over the falls — traffic running 74% below the 7-day average, with a notable contingent of aircraft that apparently forgot to introduce themselves.
NOTABLE TRAFFIC
XEN27 [A2A533] — Cruising at 47,000 ft, eastbound at 508 kts. Exceeds standard commercial ceilings. Consistent with a large business jet or military platform. Someone is traveling in style and altitude.
QTR8248 [06A1E7] — Qatar Airways contact climbing northeast at 528 kts, 31,000 ft. Noteworthy: ICAO hex 06A1E7 falls outside known national allocation ranges. Flagged for registration irregularity.
UPS223 [A80A8F] — FedEx's competition, tracking northeast at 37,000 ft and 532 kts — fastest confirmed contact of the day. Cargo waits for no one.
SWA374 [A1A2E0] — Southwest, 2,900 ft, 210 kts, heading 230°. Low and moving briskly. Likely on approach to CLE but worth a second look given the altitude-speed combination.
JZA735 [C00B80] — Canadian-registered contact at a mere 875 ft, heading 230°. Our lowest contact of the day, by a comfortable margin.
ANOMALIES
Silent Runners: Sixteen contacts transmitted Mode S transponder data with no flight ID whatsoever — hex codes AC61DB, A39FB7, A4D04C, ADD2B0, ABEF98, A44214, A224FA, AC3656, AAFFAA, ADECB6, A1F46B, A1244B, A50549, A2B8DB, A3DC5A, A8C89C, and A2B47F. All at cruise altitudes between 27,000 and 38,000 ft. They know we can see them.
Unknown Hex Codes: QTR8248, EVA637, AMX692, and AMX680 all carry ICAO codes outside recognized national allocations. Four in one day is worth noting.
Four Canadian Visitors: JZA897, JZA749, JZA735, and CFPCL — all Canadian-registered. Friendly neighbors, routinely flagged per protocol.
PATTERN NOTES
Today's 158 contacts represent a significant shortfall against the 602-aircraft daily average — roughly three-quarters of our expected traffic simply did not materialize. Dozens of regulars including DAL1193, RPA4631, SKW3826, SWA2412, UAL1803, and UAL1657 (among many others) failed to appear across multiple observation windows. No single cause is evident from the air picture alone; ground-side coordination is recommended.
Traffic that did appear followed conventional corridor patterns: predominantly east-west cruise traffic between 30,000–40,000 ft, with expected CLE approach and departure sequencing at lower altitudes.
END OF DAILY AIR PICTURE