Something appeared over an airport in daylight and stopped flight operations for about three hours. Two Rafales scrambled, searched the area and found nothing, and the object was not reported again. India keeps no UFO archive; the official record is the Civil Aviation Ministry's answer to Parliament.
Army posts in Ladakh reported lights on the border in 2013. Balloons or drones are the usual candidates; no official body has named one here.
Airport and airline personnel; Indian Air Force crews sent to look for it
Evidence
Two Rafales scrambled from a nearby base; civil flight operations suspended for about three hours
Agency
None. India has no UAP office; the Air Force answered reactively
Assessment
B · official response, no data
The full file
At about half past two on the afternoon of Sunday 19 November 2023, the control room of the Central Industrial Security Force at Bir Tikendrajit International Airport, Imphal, telephoned the airport's air traffic control to say that an unidentified flying object was overhead. Imphal is the capital of Manipur, in India's north-east, and in November 2023 the state was six months into ethnic violence between Meitei and Kuki-Zo communities. Landings and take-offs stopped for close to three hours, two inbound flights were sent elsewhere, and the Indian Air Force put fighters into the air to look for the object.
What was reported
The fullest official description is the written answer the Ministry of Civil Aviation gave to Lok Sabha Unstarred Question 2024, tabled by the Congress MP Manish Tewari and answered on 14 December 2023 by the Minister of State, General V. K. Singh (retired). It says the object was first reported at 14:30 IST "just above the ATC Tower overhead", that it "appeared to be of White colour", moved south above the tower and stayed stationary there for some time. It was visible until 16:05 IST and then disappeared. The answer adds that sunset at Imphal that day was at 16:26.
The press accounts of 19 and 20 November differ on direction. A PTI report quoted an airport official saying the object was visible to the naked eye moving westwards of the airfield until about 4 pm; EastMojo, citing an official report, had it drifting to the south-west before it vanished. The witnesses were security personnel, controllers on the tower terrace and people on the ground. No witness has been named.
The disruption and the Rafales
The ministry's answer lists the flights. IndiGo 6E-275 from Kolkata, which PTI and EastMojo say was told to hold overhead for about 25 minutes, was diverted to Guwahati; IndiGo 6E-5118 from Delhi was diverted to Kolkata. Three departures, IndiGo 6E-525 to Agartala and Air India AI-734 to Kolkata and AI-890 to Guwahati, were held on the ground. A NOTAM was issued. The airport director, Chipemmi Keishing, said in a statement that operations resumed only after clearance from the competent authority. Estimates of the closure run from "nearly 3 hours" (the ministry) to a resumption at 17:45 (EastMojo), and The Week put the passengers affected at around 1,000.
According to defence sources quoted by ANI, a Rafale from a nearby air base flew low over the area with its sensors and found nothing; a second was sent after the first returned and also saw nothing. ANI noted that the IAF's Rafales in the region are based at Hasimara in West Bengal but did not say the sorties came from there. The IAF's Eastern Command, headquartered at Shillong, said on X that it had activated its air defence response mechanism based on visual inputs from Imphal airport, and that the small object was not seen thereafter.
What evidence exists
Very little that is public. The defence sources told ANI that videos of the object over the airport existed and that the agencies concerned were trying to establish its details. None has been released by any official body, and no radar data, Rafale sensor record or photograph has been published. India has no office that collects or publishes such reports, so the tower log, the CISF record and the air defence logs stay with the Airports Authority of India and the Air Force. The Lok Sabha answer is the only official document in the public record.
What investigators concluded
No conclusion has been published. The Week reported on the evening of 19 November that the central government was looking into the incident, and no findings followed. The December answer described the object, listed the flights and said that any unidentified airborne object near an airport is a hazard because its movements are unpredictable. It did not say what the object was, and Tewari's questions on a policy for protecting airliners and on extraterrestrial life drew only a general paragraph about the Airports Authority's role in managing Indian airspace.
The conventional explanation
The leading explanation is a balloon. A white object that hung over the airport for long periods, drifted slowly south or west, and stayed in view for over an hour and a half fits a balloon carried by upper-level wind far better than an aircraft, and a high balloon catching the low sun could look small and bright from the ground. A Rafale's radar would struggle to return anything from a thin envelope, which would square with two sorties finding nothing. A small drone is the other ordinary candidate; The Week noted that drones were in wide use in Manipur during the conflict, and some reports at the time used the word.
The weakness is that no official has named either. No balloon launch has been matched to the date, no wind data has been published against the reported drift, and a drone holding position for an hour and a half would need more endurance than most hobby models carry. The balloon reading is this archive's judgement, not a finding.
What remains unexplained
The identity of the object, the content of the videos the defence sources mentioned, and what the Rafales' sensors recorded are all unknown. Whether it moved south or west, and its height and size, have never been stated. The case rests on one parliamentary answer and a day of press reporting.
Corrected The full file: EastMojo attributed the south-west drift to an official report, not to unnamed sources; the text now says so.
Corrected The full file: The 25-minute hold of IndiGo 6E-275 comes from the PTI and EastMojo reports, not the ministry's answer; the text now attributes it to them.
Corrected The full file: No cited source gives about 500 passengers affected; the text now gives only The Week's figure of around 1,000.
Corrected The full file: The press accounts are dated 19 and 20 November 2023, not all 'the following day'; the text now gives both dates.
Corrected The Ladakh border reports date from 2013, not the same year, and no official body has named a balloon; the file previously called a balloon probably right. A balloon or drone is now only the default answer.
Sources The source on file is now the Civil Aviation Ministry's December 2023 answer to a Lok Sabha question rather than an encyclopedia article.
Added The full file, a long-form write-up with its sources, added.
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