What Floated Over Mumbai Runway Were Lanterns, Say Officials. But No Proof

Mumbai: When what looked like a group of parachutes were spotted nearing the main runway at the Mumbai airport, a Jet Airways pilot decided to abort take-off on Saturday evening. The pilot of the plane, which was to fly to Ahmedabad, informed Air Traffic Controllers of what he had seen.

Officials then alerted security agencies about the possibility of the "parachutes" being remote-controlled; the case is now being investigated by the Mumbai police along with intelligence agencies.

Sources in the Mumbai police tell NDTV that it's likely that the airborne interlopers were Chinese lanterns, but the objects have not been traced and officials don't know where they landed.

An unnamed police officer told the newspaper The Indian Express, "The Mumbai runway is close to the Juhu beach where such lanterns are sold over the weekends. There is a possibility that these sky lanterns, owing to the wind condition, would have travelled towards the runway," he said. "The pilot who spotted 'some orange-yellow luminous flying objects' would have mistook them for paragliders," he added.