Two days after five “parachutes” were spotted over the take-off path in Mumbai airport, police and security agencies are still struggling to identify them and trace their source. Sources said airport officials are yet to submit the incident's video recording and provide exact details of the sequence of the events to the police. While officials of Air Traffic Control (ATC) had said the balloons moved towards Powai, police have not found them there yet. Taking suo motu cognisance of the matter, Mumbai police has sought reply from all stakeholders. “We have asked all stakeholders to submit their replies. We have taken suo motu cognisance and are probing the incident,” DCP Virendra Mishra said. [related-post] ATC officials said that their report to the Directorate General of Civil Aviation contains accounts of the ATCO and the pilot of a Jet Airways flight which was going to land when the objects were sighted. “The pilot noticed five objects that he thought were parachutes, while our ATCO saw four. The ATCO saw them moving towards the northeast direction towards Powai,” said an ATC official, who did not wish to be named. A police source said preliminary assessment had indicated that the flying objects could be Chinese lanterns and Juhu vendors are being questioned regarding sale of such lanterns over the weekend. The source added that there was little chance of the flying objects being parachutes or paragliders. “Parachutes are descending crafts and are not operated by a remote control. As far as paragliders are concerned, they are manned crafts,” said the source. The DGCA suspects that the objects were weather balloons sent up by the Indian Meteorological Department. IMD officials, however, said they released no balloon on Saturday evening. They also pointed out that their balloons are pale white in colour, while the ones spotted were colourful. “We send out our balloons at 6am daily. The hydrogen-filled balloons go straight up and travel at 18-20km If more than one object was noticed, it certainly cannot be our weather balloon,” said S G Kamble from IMD's Mumbai airport bureau. The Armed Forces, too, have said that they conducted no exercises in the Mumbai airspace on Saturday. While the official probe is yet to conclude, sources from Mumbai International Airport Pvt Limited said the balloons could be “parachute-crackers”. “We assume these are parachute crackers in which after the explosion a parachute-like thing floats in sky," they said. mumbai.newsline@expressindia.com
