Mid-air scare: 4 parachutes come close to Chennai-bound Air India flight at 6,000 feet

There was a mid-air scare for a Chennai-bound Air India 671 flight on Friday morning when four parachutes came close to the plane. The carrier was at an altitude of 6,000 feet, five Nautical miles from Vasai.  The sighting of such nature is third of its kind in 15 days. 

According to The Hindustan Times, in the crew Airbus 319 spotted the colourful parachutes. “They were yellow, red, green and blue”, said a senior ATC official said to the daily. 

Earlier, a similar incident took place in Delhi. An alert was sounded at Indira Gandhi International airport in New Delhi on Wednesday after authorities received a call about a "big balloon" hovering over it. However, later the Delhi Police said that the suspicious balloon belonged to the Met Department. Delhi Police also asked everyone not to panic.

On January 26, a US-made helium-filled balloon was shot down by a Sukhoi-30 fighter aircraft over Rajasthan with top government sources maintaining that it had come from Pakistan and could have been an attempt to gauge India's response time.

The shiny 3 metres in diametre balloon, with "Happy Birthday" written on it, was flying at a height of about 25,000 feet in Jaisalmer district when it was picked up by the air force radars which were on high alert in view of Republic Day celebrations.