The Indian Air Force (IAF) on Sunday received information about the sighting of unidentified flying objects near the Imphal airport. Soon, the IAF scrambled its Rafale fighter aircraft based at Hashimara air base in West Bengal to search for them.
The sighting of the UFO over Imphal airport took place around 2.30 pm after which a few commercial flights were affected. Speaking to ANI, the defense sources said, “Soon after information about the UFO near the Imphal airport was received, a Rafale fighter aircraft from a nearby airbase was scrambled to go and search for the UFO.”
They further said the aircraft equipped with advanced sensors carried out low-level flying over the suspected area to look for the UFO but it did not find anything there.
“After the first aircraft returned, one more Rafale fighter was sent for the search but the UFO was not seen around the area. The agencies concerned are trying to find out the details of the UFO as there are videos of the UFO over the Imphal airport,” they added as quoted by ANI.
Hours after Imphal airport was cleared for flying, the Shillong-headquartered Eastern Command of the Indian Air Force stated that it had activated its Air Defence response mechanism without giving any specific details of the steps taken by it.
Airports Authority of India reported that at 2.30pm, Imphal ATC received a telephonic message from CISF control room about an unidentified object flying over the terminal and moving southwards above the ATC tower, where it remained stationary midair for some time. Thereafter, it moved southwest of the airfield and was visible till 4.05pm. Sources said DGCA and the defence authorities were likely to separately investigate the sighting.