Date of sighting: January 26, 2016
Location of sighting: Barmer, Rajasthan
News source: http://www.dnaindia.com/india/report-iaf-sukhoi-jets-shoot-down-suspected-pakistani-balloon-over-jaisalmer-after-security-alert-2170972
Its not everyday a UFO gets shot down. This one is thought to be a balloon with a bomb tied to it. It looks like a giant cloud orb to me. Sometimes if they are struck by lightning, they can malfunction and fall to the earth. This one...disintegrated except for two sharp finger size metal objects. Its was a enough of a threat that they called out fighter jets to shoot it down. At 9 feet in diameter (3 meters) it would be hard not to see. It took 97 shots and no harmful payload was found. Why would they care about a balloon? And it did show up on radar. If balloons were a threat, Los Angeles, CA would have a squadron of fighters jets at war in the sky over Disneyland.
Scott C. Waring
www.ufosightingsdaily.com
News states:
The suspicious object flying over Jaisalmer in Rajasthan on Tuesday, that led to Indian Air Force (IAF) fighter jets and helicopters scramble for it and shoot it down, turned out to be a helium-filled balloon with 'Happy Birthday' written on it. IAF said in a statement on Wednesday that "On 26 Jan, an IAF radar had picked up an unidentified flying object moving easterly in Jaisalmer area.
A fighter jet intercepted the object which was found to be a balloon of about 3-metre diameter. Due to heightened security alert, the balloon was shot down as it would have been carrying unknown payload." "However, on analysis of the debris, it was established that there was no dangerous payload," the IAF release said further. Reliable sources in IAF added that the object was detected by radars at 25,000 feet. At first, two Mi-17 choppers were launched to engage the object but since it was flying at a level higher than the helicopters could go, two Sukhoi-30 jets flew from Jodhpur airbase to get it.
"The balloon was shot down within 15 minutes of it being detected and a total of 97 rounds were fired from the aircraft," said a source. Even as sources said that the balloon came from across the India-Pakistan border, defence minister Manohar Parrikar told reporters here, "Our radars picked up a shiny flying object entering our air space. A fighter jet was quickly scrambled which intercepted it and shot it down". He, however, refused to elaborate further. The IAF said that it is investigating reports of cracks in some houses at Gugdi town in the neighboring Barmer district even as residents claimed it happened due to "bombs" that were dropped from fighters.
