An unidentified flying object (UFO) parachuted into the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s (DR Congo) dense jungle to caused confusion among local authorities, who detained two people for questioning, until a subsidiary of Google parent company Alphabet confirmed that the device was an Internet balloon.
Images shared on social media showed people inspecting a large silver-colored contraption fitted with solar panels and wires, which had landed in the tropical forest of Bas-Uele Province in the north of DR Congo, trailing a large deflated balloon.
Locals alerted the security services after the object fell to earth about 1pm on Monday, Bas-Uele Governor Valentin Senga said, after visiting the site about 10km south of the provincial capital Buta.
Photo: Reuters
“I’m not able to say exactly what kind of device I observed,” he said by telephone on Tuesday. “What intrigues us is that neither the intelligence services, nor the local aviation authorities claim to have any information on the overflight of Congolese air space by this aircraft.”
The police detained two people, a Congolese and a Pakistani national, who had arrived in Buta to search for the device, he said.
The mystery was solved on Tuesday afternoon when Loon, a subsidiary of Alphabet, claimed the object.
“I can confirm that Loon executed a controlled landing of one of our stratospheric balloons in this region,” a Loon spokesman said.
Loon’s balloons travel 20km above the Earth’s surface on the edge of space, acting as floating cell towers, to deliver Internet service to people in remote areas around the world.
Loon said the landing was coordinated with local air traffic control officials and approved by the Congolese Civil Aviation Authority.
Last month, Kenya’s Telkom launched mobile Internet services via Loon technology.
Flight-tracking software showed the HBAL166 balloon circling central Africa in recent months, with its last known location in the DR Congo.
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