Rumours kept residents of Pochanpur glued to sky
I was on duty on Sunday and heard about the airport being shut. When people told me it is due to some flying object spotted in our area, I also tried to look for it in the sky but did not find anything
A day after a ‘dronelike object’ was spotted near the Delhi airport, locals living in the vicinity were curiously looking at the sky, trying to spot something, on Monday.
Police said that the drone-like object was seen near Dwarka Sector 23. They suspect that it could be a drone-camera, which is used in weddings.
Hindustan Times visited Pochanpur Village in Dwarka on Monday. The neighbourhood has many banquets halls that hold weddings throughout the year. Also, the village falls on the route of the flights that operate from Delhi’s IGI airport.
Drones dominated the talk in the village as several locals claimed to have spent a significant time of the day trying to spot something in the air.
“We are among the first to know, if something happens at the airport. On Sunday, neighbours told me that some flying object had shut down the airport. I turned on the television, while my 12-year-old son ran outside to check the sky,” said 42-year-old Ramesh Tiwari, a resident. He runs a shop in the local market.
By Monday morning, local residents dismissed the news as rumour.
“Such news travel fast through television and word of mouth. But later, it turns out to be a rumour. I was on duty on Sunday and heard about the airport being shut. When people told me it is due to some flying object spotted in our area, I also tried to look for it in the sky but did not find anything,” said Parmatma, a 50-year-old security guard, who has been working in the area for three years.
Locals said that although there are three-four banquet halls in the area, none had booked a wedding on Sunday. They claimed that drone cameras have been used in some exotic weddings in these halls, but there hasn’t been such a big wedding in the last six months.
However, drone cameras used in recording weddings is only one of the many problems that the pilots are facing.
Earlier this year, pilots had complained of distraction by laser lights during landing at the airport, forcing the Delhi police to reach out to traders and asking them not to supply these lights at the wedding venues near the airport.