Japanese Air Force increases flights in Feb due to balloons appearance – Reports

Tokyo:  The Japan Air Self-Defense Force (JASDF) significantly increased the number of emergency flights and strengthened its vigilance in February in connection with the appearance of unidentified balloons, the Kyodo news agency reported on Wednesday, citing its own sources in the Japanese Defense Ministry.

“As a result of the fact that we started to exercise more caution than earlier and thoroughly check the situation, the number of emergency departures has increased,” a source said.

In particular, the JASDF was alerted 66 times in February, with 34 cases because of an appearance of a Chinese aircraft, once because of Russian and 31 times for the reason described as “other,” which means that there was nothing identified that was necessary to be reported, the source said.

The Japanese Defense Ministry has never revealed specifics of the “other” section, but it might possibly include cases of the appearance of US or South Korean aircraft, balloons and large flocks of birds.

In February, the Japanese Defense Ministry said that three unidentified flying objects spotted in Japanese airspace from 2019-2021 were Chinese “spy balloons.” The announcement came amid US statements that the Pentagon has spotted and then shot down an alleged Chinese surveillance balloon over its territory. China has refuted the allegations saying its balloon was a civilian airship engaged in scientific research that veered off course.