Imphal Airport UFO Sighting (2023)

The sighting and airport disruption

On the afternoon of Sunday, 19 November 2023, an unidentified flying object was reported in the controlled airspace above Imphal International Airport, the main air gateway to Manipur, a state in northeast India. The airport's director, Chipemmi Keishing, issued a statement tying the disruption to the sighting: "Due to sighting of an unidentified flying object within Imphal controlled airspace, two flights have been diverted and three departing flights have been delayed." Flight operations were reported as suspended for a few hours, and services normalised after roughly three hours according to one account; the Deccan Herald report covers the flight-service impact. Accounts differ on the exact length of the disruption.

The sighting was reported from the airport itself rather than from a single civilian witness, which is what distinguishes it from most UFO reports that reach the press. A follow-up statement from the air force, as relayed in The Week, said the object was visible to the naked eye moving westward over the airfield until about 4 pm.

Military response

The Indian Air Force's Eastern Command, headquartered in Shillong, posted on X that it had activated its air defence response mechanism "based on visual inputs from Imphal airport." According to The Tribune, defence sources said two Rafale fighters were launched from the air base at Hasimara in West Bengal. The first aircraft flew low over the suspected area; the second was sent only after the first had returned. Neither reported finding the object, and a follow-up IAF post said the object was no longer seen. The Eastern Command's statement did not describe the steps taken in any detail.

The response is what gives the case its weight. A national air force publicly acknowledging that it scrambled fighters over a reported unidentified object, and saying so in an official post, is an unusual step in the sources reviewed here.

Explanations and open questions

No official identification has been published. Coverage mentions a drone spotted by airport security at about 3 pm that day, but none of the reports establishes that it was the same object seen by airport staff. One outlet speculated that a commercially purchased drone flown by an individual near the airport could have been responsible; that remains unconfirmed. Outlook India reported that defence sources said agencies were trying to determine what the object was and that videos of it existed. No such footage has been released in the reporting reviewed here.

The ordinary explanations for a daytime aerial object seen by trained observers over an airport (a drone, a balloon, a distant aircraft, or a bright reflection) are all plausible on the evidence available, and none has been ruled in or out publicly. The disruption to flights is documented; the identity of the object is not.

Significance

The case is best-documented as an event: an airport closure, a scrambled fighter response, and an official statement are all on the record. Its interpretation is unresolved. It is notable less for any claim about what the object was than for showing how a modern air force handles an unidentified aerial report, a question that has become more prominent in official discussions of unidentified aerial phenomena in the mid-2020s. Anyone following the case should treat the press figures on flight diversions and the exact timing as approximate, since reports differ on those details.