Bahanaga: Fisherman Raghunath Das along with seven other fishermen from Talapada village under Remuna block in Balasore district had gone fishing in their mechanised country boats Monday wee hour when they noticed an object burning in the sky.
Imagining the fire like substance as a shooting star they wished for a good catch for the day and pressed ahead.
The burning object, that they thought to be a shooting star, dropped on water at Jamuka river mouth in front of them and it was found to be something like a rocket with some markings on it. Their wishes vanished like bubbles. That said, the fishermen, with the help of their fishing net pulled out the rocket-like object onto their boat.
“It was still making some kind of sound even after it was retrieved and then stopped after a while,” Das said.
However, after the catch, they informed the local police regarding the incident.
On being informed, OIC of Gopalpur police outpost Bansidhar Pradhan along with some officials of DRDA and ITR, Chandipur reached the fishermen’s village.
As the news of rocket fishing spread, crowd, especially from nearby villages, began to throng the place. Young men started making videos and some people came to take pictures and selfies.
The officials took the rocket to the Integrated Test Range at Chandipur. There they came to know that the rocket-like object was actually a target aircraft ‘Banshee’. It is suspected to have been fired from the Integrated Test Range at Chandipur. The aircraft weighs around 50 kg and is 8 feet long.
ITR Chandipur director Binay Kumar Das said, “We learnt that some fishermen have found it and brought it to the shore. There is no harm in it and no need to worry as it was part of a routine exercise”.
PNN