Pentagon officials have confirmed that a US military fighter jet shot down an octagonal object over Lake Huron on Sunday, marking the fourth such incident in North America in just over a week. While the military has been unable to determine what these objects are, how they stay aloft, or where they are coming from, they have ruled out the possibility of balloons.
According to General Glen VanHerck, the head of North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) and Northern Command, the military is calling these objects “objects,” instead of balloons, for a reason. He also stated that he would not rule out aliens or any other explanation, but that the intel and counterintelligence communities would determine the cause. However, a defense official speaking on condition of anonymity later confirmed that there was no evidence that the objects were extraterrestrial.
The object was shot down on President Biden’s orders by a US F-16 fighter at 2:42 p.m. local time over Lake Huron on the US-Canada border. Although the object did not pose a military threat, it could have potentially interfered with domestic air traffic as it was traveling at 20,000 feet and might have had surveillance capabilities. A US official, speaking on condition of anonymity, stated that the object appeared to be octagonal in structure, with strings hanging off but no discernible payload.
This object was believed to be the same one recently detected over Montana near sensitive military sites, which prompted the closure of US airspace. General VanHerck stated that the military would try to recover the object shot down over Lake Huron in order to learn more about it, and that it likely fell into Canadian waters.
The recent spate of unusual objects appearing over North American skies has raised questions and tensions, especially with China. US Representative Debbie Dingell stated that the facts about where these objects are originating from, what their purpose is, and why their frequency is increasing are needed. US officials identified the first object as a Chinese surveillance balloon, which was shot down off the coast of South Carolina on Feb 4th. A second object was shot down over sea ice near Deadhorse, Alaska on Feb 11th, and a third object was destroyed over Canada’s Yukon on Feb 12th, with investigators still searching for the wreckage.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau stated that the security of citizens is the top priority and that was the reason for the decision to shoot down the object. North America has been on high alert following the appearance of a 200-foot-tall white Chinese airship over American skies earlier this month, which Americans have accused of being used for surveillance by Beijing. The balloon caused an international incident and led Secretary of State Antony Blinken to cancel a planned trip to China just hours before departure. Since then, Pentagon officials have been closely scrutinizing radar.
US officials have closed airspace twice in 24 hours due to surveillance fears, with the Federal Aviation Administration briefly closing space above Lake Michigan on Sunday, and the US military scrambling fighter jets in Montana on Saturday to investigate a radar anomaly. China denies that the first balloon was being used for surveillance and states that it was a civilian research craft. The US Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer stated that US officials think two of the latest objects were smaller balloons than the original one, and the White House stated that the recently downed objects “did not closely resemble” the Chinese balloon.
The recovery of the debris may pose challenges for Canadian counterparts, as the territory over the Yukon is a sparsely populated region in Canada’s far northwest that borders Alaska. Although temperatures are usually brutal in the winter, they are unusually mild for this time of year, which could ease the recovery effort. US Republican lawmaker Mike Turner, who serves on the US
