Taoyuan International Airport — Runways Closed 40 Minutes, UAP Unidentified

At approximately 09:30 local time on May 22, 2023, the crew of China Airlines Flight CI152, on approach to Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport, reported an unidentified flying object approximately 305 meters above the airport's primary runways — specifically above runways 05L and 05R.

Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport Corporation (TIAC), the government body operating the airport, responded by immediately suspending all takeoff and landing operations. The shutdown lasted approximately 40 minutes, from approximately 09:30 to 10:10 AM, impacting seven flights and disrupting 919 passengers with delays of up to 62 minutes. The decision to close the runway was made on safety grounds, consistent with international civil aviation protocols for unidentified objects in restricted airspace.

桃園國際機場股份有限公司隨即通報航空警察局，並確認當時並未偵測到任何異常的無人機訊號或已登記的無人機活動。機場管理單位事後發表聲明，表示「無法確認該物體是無人機或其他任何事物」。 (Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport Corporation immediately notified the Aviation Police Bureau, which confirmed that no abnormal drone signals or registered drone activity were detected in the area at the time. The airport authority subsequently issued a statement saying it was "unable to determine whether the object was a drone or something else entirely.")

The Aviation Police Bureau confirmed it found no evidence of a registered drone operating in the area. TIAC stated it had no radar confirmation of a conventional aircraft. Operations resumed at 10:10 AM. No official explanation for the object was ever issued.

Several factors make this case notable beyond a typical airspace incident. The witness was a professional flight crew on a commercial airliner — trained observers in the most regulated and instrument-rich environment in aviation. The airport authority, rather than quickly attributing the report to a misidentified drone or weather balloon, issued a formal statement acknowledging its inability to identify the object. And the closure of two runways at one of Asia's busiest international airports for 40 minutes is an extraordinary operational response that reflects institutional credibility given to the crew's report.

The Taoyuan 2023 incident continues a thread of credibly documented UAP encounters over Taiwan stretching from the 1968 CIA-filed military investigation through the 1996 China Airlines pilot near-miss — a pattern that has never prompted a formal Taiwanese government investigation or the establishment of a reporting mechanism equivalent to those in the United States, United Kingdom, or France.