Balloons coming from across the border? Is Pakistan planning something sinister?

IGI airport on alert

An alert was sounded at the Indira Gandhi International airport on Wednesday after authorities received a call about a ‘big balloon’ hovering over it

However, the Delhi Police in a tweet said the balloon belonged to the Indian Meteorological Department and there was nothing to panic about.“The so called suspicious balloon is of the Met Department. All safe. Pl do not panic.

Series of hoax calls

Jet Airways flight 9W260 from Delhi to Kathmandu and an Air India flight were grounded at the Indira Gandhi International Airport following threat calls. Later, it turned to be hoax calls.

Five flights have been grounded in India in the last five days due such hoax calls sending airport security into a frenzy and national security on edge.

Can this anti-national mischief be ignored as stray incidents or it is an attempt to bleed the already volatile civil aviation sector?

Bomb hoaxes have always plagued the aviation industry the world over but with India already facing a heightened terror threat the big question is could this be a precursor of something bigger and dangerous?

India’s Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar has  said that a balloon-shaped object that was shot down by a Sukhoi-30 fighter aircraft yesterday in Barmer, nearly 500 km from Rajasthan capital Jaipur, had come flying from across the border.

“The Ministry of Defence has written a letter to the Ministry of External Affairs to take up the matter with Pakistan. Though it had no payload, it could have been sent to test our security and gauge our response time. In 15 minutes, Sukhoi (from Jodhpur) shot down the balloon after the radar noticed it coming from across the border,” Parrikar said.

IAF officials said the object was flying in from the western sector (implying Pakistan side) and was shot down. The balloon was flying at an altitude of 8 km, which is unusual, and was around 3 metre is diameter. The balloon was made by a US company.

“Between 1030 and 1100 hours today (Tuesday), an unidentified balloon-shaped object was picked up by the IAF radar. An IAF fighter was launched that intercepted the object and brought it down. Further investigation is underway,” an IAF spokesman has been quoted by media in India.

No one was hurt nor was any damage caused to the property in the area, the spokesman said in Jaipur. Reports said it was a private balloon and the possibility of it carrying any spying object was initially ruled out.