A Weather Balloon Appeared Over Delhi Yesterday And Armageddon Happened (Almost)

Delh¡¯s Indira Gandhi International airport flew into panic after authorities received a call about a "big balloon" hovering over it yesterday. Patrol guards spotted the red and white balloon in the afternoon at the nearby Air Force Station on Gurgaon-Faridabad Road.

Balloon-like object spotted near Delhi Airforce station https://t.co/S5PkmJ1B27

¡ª TIMES NOW (@TimesNow) January 27, 2016

The balloon, a metre wide in diameter, was en-route the Aya Nagar IAF station in Delhi.

#ALERT: Suspicious balloon-like object spotted near Delhi airport, Indian Air Force alerted: Reports

¡ª Times of India (@timesofindia) January 27, 2016

For some reason, the best step of action was to call the local police in Delhi and Faridabad, who are known for effectively hunting down UFOs.

The balloon was heading from the airport to the IAF base

Instead of then sending up a chopper to investigate or something equally logical, the police spread anxiety.

DCP of IGI airport DK Gupta told the Times of India that all security agencies were informed about the information - the police themselves had NOT SPOTTED THE UFO they were freaking out about.

@ndtv the so called suspicious baloon is of the Met Department. All safe. Pl do not panic.

¡ª Delhi Police (@DelhiPolice) January 27, 2016

Considering how commonly the India Meteorological Department uses weather balloons loaded with radio devices to receive atmospheric weather data, it was surprising that it took hours to ask them: hey guys, is this your balloon? It was their balloon.

This is a weather balloon being launched. Should the Indian Air Force not waste time getting terrified about this innocent device?

So the balloon was¡­just a balloon. Not a weapon to spread airborne terror

Don't panic, the 'suspicious' balloon spotted at Delhi IGI airport was of MeT department's: Delhi Police confirms pic.twitter.com/tjS7FnBb7P

¡ª CNN-IBN News (@ibnlive) January 27, 2016

India has led a crack operation to shoot down a balloon just a day before this incident.

We dispatched a fully loaded Sukhoi-30 fighter aircraft to shoot down a balloon in Rajasthan's Barmer district.

Considering that Barmer borders Pakistan, that might have been valid. But again, it was JUST A BaLLOON. No threatening bombs, not even a thermonuclear-level hot video of Hina Rabbani Khar. No dangerous payload was found.

Balloon fears are nothing new to India, and we haven¡¯t learned our lesson from them

hindustantimes

In May last year, gas-filled balloons scared onlookers over the Mumbai ¨C again, over an airport. They were found to belong to an event management company promoting a local cricket match.