Satellite plunge into China
On the way to the Far East today and suddenly over Irkutsk FIR we got a disturbing message from company despatch that from US military intelligence sources a satellite is due to slam down close to our route near Anrat with a window of 0005 UTC to 0405 UTC; WE ARE TO EXERCISE CAUTION! WTF, exercise caution? All attempts to find out further info drew a blank; with the earlier warning message repeated. We were alarmed enough to consider diverting to ZMUB or UIII to wait for confirmation of the slam down...company said no worries, everybody else was continuing. After a long debate and some not too convincing words from PEK ATC, we continued all the time asking for heads up from ATC and preceding aircrafts. Now the big question is; how can one exercise caution and avoid satellite pieces from the blue yonder?