UFO Sighting in Imphal affects flight operations for few hours at BTI Airport

Flight operations at Bir Tikendrajit International (BTI) Airport in Manipur's Imphal were suspended for over three hours on Sunday after an unidentified flying object (UFO) was hovering over the airport, officials said.

A senior Airport Authority of India (AAI) official said that the flight operations at the BTI Airport in Imphal were suspended for three hours and twenty minutes from 2.30 p.m. on Sunday afternoon and the flight operations were resumed in the evening as usual after a “thorough checkup about the UFO”.

The official said that after the sighting of UFO within Imphal controlled airspace, two flights from Delhi and Guwahati have been diverted and three departing Agartala, Guwahati and Kolkata bound flights have been delayed and the flight operations restarted after getting clearance from the competent authority.

The UFO was reportedly sighted by the Central Industrial Security Force personnel and a pilot of a private airliner before his flight was about to depart around 2.20 p.m.

There is no immediate clarification on the identity and motive of the object, but sources said the Director General of Civil Aviation and Indian Air Force are jointly looking into it.