PALINI R. SWAMY writes from Bangalore: Two south Indian newspapers, the Malayala Manorama (in picture, above) and the New Indian Express, have reported the sighting of an unidentified flying object (UFO) in Kannur district in Kerala.
According to Manorama, the picture was taken by Major Sebastian Zachariah, an Indian army officer serving on the UN mission in Congo, when he was testing his new mobile telephone.
The Express (above) followed suit, and quoted the major’s wife:
“My husband had a new mobile (HTC-1) and he was checking the features by clicking photos randomly. It was around 4.30-5 pm and suddenly he screamed saying that he got a UFO image. We couldn’t believe it first and thought he was playing a prank,” Divya who hails from Kannur said over phone.
“He did not see the UFO with his naked eye. We checked every frame carefully and only one had a flying saucer on it. We looked in the sky to spot something unusual. We came back home and did a thorough search on the internet and even scanned the NASA website.”
Thankfully, Express also quoted Professor Jayant Murthy of the Indian Institute of Astrophysics in Bangalore, who rejected the claims.
“Due to reflections of some optics there could have been illusions. People sometimes experience camera illusions and they are not UFOs. These are nothing real.”
The wellknown rationalist, Sanal Edamaruku, wrote on his Facebook page:
“UFO attacks can be “recorded” with new HTC-1 mobile phone App. UFO-logists have enough stuff for some time.”
Edamaruku also suggested a You Tube link to show how it is done:
However, one blogger put the whole thing in perspective:
“HTC–1 is a powerful phone with a very powerful camera. HTC -1 produces perfect images with one-press continuous shooting, VideoPic, and a camera that captures 300% more light. It has a very powerful Ultra Pixel camera supporting continuous shooting. It looks like the picture got captured only because of this powerful camera. Hence we cannot rule out the possibility that this a genuine UFO phenomenon caught on film due to a very powerful, advanced camera phone.”
Also read: How a giant pig fooled the American media
How a newspaper’s prank exposed websites
IJR 
The blogger who has said about the HTC One camera quality knows nothing. There is an app available in Google Play which lets you add UFOs to the pictures you take. And this is possible on any Android phone with a camera.
Here is the link to the app:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.ar.ufoccam&hl=en
Not only UFOs, you also have apps for ghost images etc.
But they said only one picture out of all the random clicks had the UFO image. How does this happen?
Did anyone actually analyse the camera or the pictures taken through a forensic lab. If you ask me, this is either an elaborate publicity stunt for promoting the new HTC-1 phone or just someone out to play a prank on the general public by fooling gullible journalists of these publications through use of the prank UFO app.
Why do I get the feeling that this is some sham designed to publicize the damn phone’s supposedly hot camera? And who is this moron blogger?
[…] like a flying saucer in the picture. They also looked at sky but failed to spot anything …'UFO' sends South Indian papers into a tizzyChurumuriAnother UFO hoax in India?Examiner.comall 4 news […]
It is clearly edited. The UFO would have been clearer given its proximity to the observer. Notice how everything else is focused while the UFO is a bit blurred.
haha this was a ploy by Manorama to divert attention from their foster son CM Ommen Chandy being battered left right and centre by Opposition on the Solar energy scandal. Most of the smart phones have this option of adding a UFO to the pic and was “pointed” out to Manorama by a reader in the letters page the next day . 125 year old paper which never grew up :).
[…] Sans Serif reports that two south Indian newspapers carried out a story that an unidentified flying object (UFO) was sighted in Kannur district in Kerala, India. A commenter on the post reminds that there is an app available in Google Play which lets one add UFOs to the pictures taken by a phone camera. […]
[…] Sans Serif reports that two south Indian newspapers carried out a story that an unidentified flying object (UFO) was sighted in Kannur district in Kerala, India. A commenter on the post reminds that there is an app available in Google Play which lets one add UFOs to the pictures taken by a phone camera. […]
Did anyone asked CM about this case as well as Mr.Nambi Narayanan….to confirm this….seen phenomenon real or not…