The Indian Air Force scrambled fighter jets to intercept and identify this UFO seen hovering in the sky near a major airport.
The footage shows a bright light hovering in the sky near the Bir Tikendrajit International Airport in Imphal, in the Indian north-eastern state of Manipur, on Sunday, 19th November.
The Indian Air Force scrambled two Rafale fighter jets to intercept and identify the unknown flying object, according to local media.
Despite the sky in the footage appearing dark, local media reported that the incident took place at around 2:30 pm and grounded flights for about three hours, causing a few commercial flights to be diverted.
Sources from the Indian Ministry of Defence told local media: “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 said that the two aircraft were equipped with advanced sensors to carry out low-level flying in the area to find the UFO, but they were unable to locate it.
The sources also reportedly said: “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.”
Hours after the airport was allowed to resume operations, the Indian Air Force said that it had activated its air defence response mechanism.
The Eastern Command of the Indian Air Force said on X, formerly Twitter: “IAF activated its Air Defence response mechanism based on visual inputs from Imphal airport. The small object was not seen thereafter.”
It is currently unclear what the UFO was, although it was spotted near the border with China.
