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The first person to sight the object was a
senior Air India pilot who was navigating the
aircraft at a height of 34,000 ft during its
flight from Kolkata to New Delhi.
“The
plane was just entering the airspace of Gaya,
close to Bengal-Bihar border, when I first
noticed the glowing object, below the aircraft,
hurtling down at a very high speed,” Captain
Rishi was quoted as saying by the Air Traffic
Control (ATC) Tower here at Dum Dum
International Airport.
The Air India
pilot initially didn’t pay much attention as it
is customary for the pilots to notice several
such things midair. But when the aircraft was
close to Varanasi, the object was still brightly
visible.
Without wasting time, he
informed the Varanasi Air Traffic Control from
where ATC, Kolkata, was alerted.
The
officials at ATC pondered over whether pilots of
other international flights that might have
crossed the Kolkata-Bihar-Varanasi route, had
also observed the glowing object reported by
Capt Rishi.
Accordingly, the ATC,
Kolkata, beamed asking signals for other
international flights that flew the same
airspace during the period concerned.
Foreign pilots
confirm
To their utter surprise,
the air traffic control officials were told by
as many as four foreign airlines flight pilots
that they had seen the same object and all of
them reiterated that it was falling down at a
great speed!
FinAir of Finland and Novou
Air of Sweden were flying from the West to East
while a couple of flights of Cathay Pacific and
Dynasty Airways of China were moving in the
opposite direction at an altitude between 34,000
and 37,000 ft over the airspace supposed to be
in the trajectory of the object.
Once the
foreign airlines pilots radioed back the ATC
tower here, confirming their sighting of the
object, ATC engineers immediately got in touch
with the Indian Air Force. However, the IAF
engineers pointed out that their powerful radar
had failed to track or notice any unusual
object.
“It could be a shooting star or
part of a meteor or a metal that had a sudden
entry into the earth’s atmosphere as a result of
which it turned into a burning object and
appeared glowing from a distance,” explained
Positional Astronomy Centre director Sanjib Sen.
“There is no denying the fact of its
existence as so many pilots having seen
it.”
But when everyone had seen it falling at
a high speed, where and when the object had hit
the earth? There is apparently no answer to this
question so far. |
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