AIR PICTURE — CHAGRIN FALLS, OH — 2026-09-15
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: Unusually quiet day over the Falls — traffic running 62% below the 7-day average, with a handful of items that earned a second look.
NOTABLE TRAFFIC
N204A [A1A0DF] — Operating at 45,000 ft, 532 kts, eastbound heading 100°. Highest speed contact of the day. Registration unfiled in this briefing's context; bears watching.
N650HA [A88D6A] — Also at 45,000 ft, 528 kts, heading 70°. Two unidentified registrations cruising at the top of the commercial envelope simultaneously is a coincidence worth noting.
LRT424 [A50AE0] — 47,000 ft, 503 kts, heading 84°. Above standard commercial ceiling. Could be a heavy business jet or something that prefers not to be discussed at dinner parties.
KSF flight cluster — Multiple KSF-callsign contacts (KSF2, KSF34, KSF35, KSF39, KSF40) operating in the 1,675–3,200 ft range near Chagrin Falls. Slow, low, local. Probable training or survey activity.
Canadian parade — ROU1737, ROU1889, JZA755, JZA927, and several others transiting with Canadian-registered ICAO codes. Normal for the Great Lakes corridor. Nothing alarming, but they were busy today.
ANOMALIES
[A335FA] — No callsign, 37,000 ft. Mode S active, no flight ID broadcast. Happens. Still gets a flag.
[AB3D17], [AB9DC6], [A51425], [A7C00F] — Four additional high-altitude contacts transmitting no callsigns. Four is a crowd. No corroborating indicators of concern, but logged accordingly.
UAL2398 [A44168] — 2,700 ft at 242 knots. Low and fast. Consistent with an approach in progress, but it earned its anomaly tag fair and square.
UNKNOWN HEX contacts: EIN9LT [4CAE29], QTR1X [06A123], ICE824 [4CC52D], VTM720 [0D0FD7], EVA003 [89913F], AMX007 [0D09EC] — Six contacts with ICAO codes outside known national allocation ranges. Callsigns present, but the hex addresses don't match any registered country block. Noteworthy.
KAL093 [71C042] — Saudi-registered ICAO hex, Korean Air callsign. Interesting combination, though not unprecedented for aircraft on foreign registry.
PATTERN NOTES
Traffic volume was dramatically suppressed all day — dropping from 97% below average at the opening hour and recovering only partially to 62% below by day's end. Over 200 regular flights did not appear. No single carrier accounts for the gap; absences span DAL, UAL, AAL, SWA, RPA, EDV, and others. Cause unknown from air picture data alone. Possibly a system-wide ground delay program, weather upstream, or a very long lunch somewhere in ATC.
END OF DAILY AIR PICTURE