Military Dispatches Fighter Jets at Bird Flock, Mistakes 'Pungseon' for Drone This Time

Air Force Fighter Jet Scrambles Over Drone Misidentification in Northern Gyeonggi

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Yang Nak-gyu, Military Specialist Reporter] The military authorities, suspecting an unidentified radar trace to be a North Korean drone for the second consecutive day and dispatching fighter jets, confirmed that it was not a drone. Following a flock of birds the previous day, this time a 'balloon' was mistaken for a drone.

According to the military on the 28th, in the early morning, an unidentified radar trace was partially detected, prompting Air Force fighter jets on standby to urgently scramble and deploy over Incheon and northern Gyeonggi Province. The object visually confirmed by the Air Force pilot in the airspace where the radar trace was detected appeared to be a balloon, and the military judged that the trace was not evidence of a North Korean drone.

The military plans to conduct further analysis by comprehensively reviewing the radar trace and the dispatch situation to determine exactly what the object was.

During the scramble of the Air Force fighter jets, there were consecutive complaints from residents in Incheon, Goyang in Gyeonggi, and some parts of Seoul who were startled by a sudden 'loud noise' around 12:40 a.m.

On various internet communities and social networking services (SNS) such as Twitter, reactions included, "The loud noise woke up the whole family," "Fighter jets flying at this hour," and "It was so loud up close, I was very surprised."

Earlier, around 1 p.m. on the 27th, an unidentified radar trace was detected over Ganghwa-gun, prompting an urgent scramble of fighter jets, but it was confirmed to be a flock of birds. Since the intrusion of five North Korean drones into national airspace on the 26th, the military has been aggressively responding by urgently scrambling jets whenever unidentified radar traces are suspected to be drones. At that time, despite firing about 100 rounds at the North Korean drones, the military failed to shoot them down, which appears to have prompted this cautious approach amid public criticism. The Joint Chiefs of Staff even issued a public apology, stating they "feel deeply sorry" for failing to shoot down the drones.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.