Indian Air Force dispatches 2 Rafale jets to investigate UFO sighting near Imphal airport

Flight operations at the Bir Tikendrajit International Airport in Manipur capital Imphal were suspended for close to four hours on Sunday after an unidentified object was found hovering above it.

The Indian Air Force (IAF), soon after receiving information about the sighting of unidentified flying objects near the Imphal airport, dispatched its Rafale fighter aircraft to search for them.

The sighting of the UFO over the Imphal airport happened around 2:30 pm.

“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,” they said, adding that after the first aircraft returned, one more Rafale fighter was sent for the search but the UFO was not seen around the area”, the IAF said in a statement.

“The agencies concerned are trying to find out the details of the UFO as there are videos of the UFO over the Imphal airport,” the statement added.

Soon after the 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.

Eastern Command, in a post on ‘X’ (formerly Twitter), said, “IAF activated its Air Defence response mechanism based on visual inputs from Imphal airport. The small object was not seen thereafter.”

The Rafale fighters, part of the Indian Air Force, are stationed at the Hashimara air base in West Bengal and operate from various air bases along the eastern sector, bordering China.