- US military fighter planes shot down an octagonal object above Lake Huron.
- It was the fourth flying object shot down by a US missile over North America.
- The Chinese foreign ministry stated that it had no information about the latest three flying objects.
Washington: According to the Pentagon, US military fighter planes shot down an octagonal object above Lake Huron on Sunday, the latest incident since a suspected Chinese surveillance balloon put North American security forces on high alert.
It was the fourth flying object shot down by a US missile over North America in less than a week. The Chinese foreign ministry stated that it had no information about the latest three flying objects shot down by the US.
General Glen VanHerck, commander of the United States Air Force, told reporters that the military has not been able to identify the three most recent objects, how they stay aloft, or where they are coming from.
“We’re calling them objects, not balloons, for a reason,” VanHerck, head of North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) and Northern Command, said.
VanHerck stated that he would not rule out aliens or any other possible explanation.
“I’ll let the intel community and the counterintelligence community figure that out,” he said.
Another defense official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, later stated that the military had seen no proof that the objects were extraterrestrial.
US-Canada border
According to Pentagon spokesperson Brigadier General Patrick Ryder, the object was shot down above Lake Huron on the US-Canada border at 2:42 p.m. local time on President Joe Biden’s command.
Though it did not constitute a military threat, the item may have disrupted domestic air traffic because it was going at 20,000 feet (6,100 m), and it could have had monitoring capabilities, according to Ryder.
According to a US official who spoke on the condition of anonymity, the item seemed to be octagonal in shape, with ropes falling off but no obvious cargo.
The object was thought to be the same as one previously discovered above Montana near critical military locations, leading the Pentagon to close US airspace. VanHerck informed reporters that the military will endeavor to recover the object that crashed over Lake Huron in order to learn more about it.
He believes it landed in Canadian waters.
The occurrence prompted concerns about the recent rash of odd objects seen in North American skies, as well as tensions with China.
“We need the facts about where they are originating from, what their purpose is, and why their frequency is increasing,” said U.S. Representative Debbie Dingell, one of several Michigan lawmakers who applauded the military for downing the object.
The first object was identified as a Chinese surveillance balloon by US officials, who shot it down off the coast of South Carolina on February 4. A second item was shot down over sea ice near Deadhorse, Alaska, on Friday. On Saturday, a third object was destroyed above Canada’s Yukon, and investigators are still looking for the wreckage.
“The security of citizens is our top priority and that’s why I made the decision to have that unidentified object shot down,” Prime Minister Justin Trudeau told reporters on Sunday.
Following the emergence of the white, eye-catching Chinese airship above American skies earlier this month, North America has been on high alert for aerial invasions.
That 200-foot-tall (60-meter-high) balloon, which Americans have accused Beijing of employing to spy on the US, sparked an international controversy, prompting Secretary of State Antony Blinken to cancel a trip to China just hours before it was scheduled to leave.
Since then, Pentagon officials have indicated they have been analyzing radar more attentively.
Fears of surveillance appear to have put US officials on high alert.
US officials closed airspace twice in 24 hours, only to quickly reopen it.
The Federal Aviation Administration momentarily blocked space above Lake Michigan on Sunday. The US military dispatched fighter jets to Montana on Saturday to examine a radar abnormality.
China denies using the first balloon for spying and claims it was a civilian research vessel. It denounced the United States for shooting it down last Saturday off the coast of South Carolina.
US Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer told that US officials believe two of the most recent objects were smaller balloons than the original.
The White House said only that the recently downed objects “did not closely resemble” the Chinese balloon, echoing Schumer’s description of them as “much smaller.”
“We will not definitively characterize them until we can recover the debris, which we are working on,” a spokesperson said.
DEBRIS IN REMOTE LOCALE
Canadians attempting to piece together what happened over the Yukon may have their own difficulties. The territory is a thinly populated region bordering Alaska in Canada’s extreme northwest. Winters can be brutally cold, but temperatures are exceptionally moderate for this time of year, which may help with healing.
Republican House Armed Services Committee member Mike Turner indicated the White House may be overcompensating for what he regarded as prior inadequate monitoring of American skies.
“They do appear somewhat trigger-happy,” Turner told on Sunday. “I would prefer them to be trigger-happy than to be permissive.”
Republicans have criticized the Biden administration over its handling of the incursion by the suspected Chinese spy balloon, saying it should have been shot down much earlier.
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