Why did F-15K fighter jets make emergency takeoff?

A mysterious flying object that caused two F-15K fighter jets to be scrambled on Jan. 12 was a toy balloon, according to the Korea Air Force on Tuesday. / Courtesy of Twitter

By Lee Han-soo

A mysterious flying object that caused two F-15K fighter jets to be scrambled on Jan. 12 was a toy balloon, according to the Korea Air Force on Tuesday.

The Air Force was on alert because, just three days before, 10 Chinese fighter jets and bombers broke into South Korean airspace in an apparent protest against the plan to deploy a U.S. missile defense system on Korean soil.

“The Master Control and Reporting Center (MCRC) ordered two F-15K jets to take off to identify an unidentified flying object after it failed to do so with ground radar,” the Air Force official said. “When the fighter jets closed in on the object, it turned out to be a big balloon.”

The Air Force did not elaborate on the balloon, including where it flew from. But it revealed that it was “big” and its surface had the image of Japanese cartoon character “Doraemon.”