It’s a bird… It’s a drone… it’s a broken porta-potty door!

May 14, 2014
Seen here is part of a broken door once suspected as being a drone after it was reported by a citizen on Mount Cheonggye, Gyeonggi Province. A citizen reported the case on May 14, 2014 to the authorities, and investigators confirmed it was not an aerial vehicle.  (Yonhap)

Seen here is part of a broken door once suspected as being a drone after it was reported by a citizen on Mount Cheonggye, Gyeonggi Province. A citizen reported the case on May 14, 2014 to the authorities, and investigators confirmed it was not an aerial vehicle. (Yonhap)

It’s a bird… It’s a plane… It’s… a broken porta-potty door mistaken as a North Korean drone?

A suspected unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) found on a mountain near Seoul turned out to be part of a broken door of a mobile lavatory, officers said Wednesday.

The report by the civilian briefly put the Seoul authorities on alert, as their probe results announced last week that the three drones found crashed near the inter-Korean border in March and April came from the communist country, though the communist country has flatly denied any involvement.

So far, the military has received some 82 such reports of drone discovery from civilians, but none of the suspected cases were found true, according to the officer.

Earlier in this day, military officers said a citizen discovered a suspected vehicle on Mount Cheonggye in the city of Gwacheon, just southeast of Seoul, and reported it to the authorities.

“Investigation by the military confirmed the object as part of a broken door made of plastic materials. It is light and easy to fly,” an officer said.

Based upon its sky-blue color, the same as the color of the drones recently found to be sent from North Korea, and the rough appearance, military officers had said it was suspected to be a drone.

“It has nothing to do with an aerial vehicle, while investigators are trying to find where exactly the fragment came from,” he said.

Another officer said the 130 centimeter-long door was part of a portable toilet.