US President Joe Biden brought down a high-flying object over Alaska on Friday. It is not yet clear what it is, the White House said.
An American F22 fighter jet shot down the object at 40,000 feet (12,190 meters). It was the size of a small car. Details about the object are still unknown, according to spokesman John Kirby, but the United States expects to find the debris in American territorial waters.
It is still unclear where the object came from, Kirby told reporters. “We don’t know who owns this object.” It crashed in the far northeast of Alaska, near the Canadian border. According to the American pilot, “no human being” was on board the object.
Kirby was careful not to classify the object as a balloon. He said the new object and its trail first came to the attention of the US on Thursday evening. The federal aviation authority has closed part of northern Alaska’s airspace in support of the Department of Defense’s recovery operation. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says he has been briefed on the US decision and supports it. “Our militaries and intelligence services will always work together to create a secure situation,” Trudeau said of ties with the US neighbor.
The size of three buses
The United States shot down a Chinese “weather balloon” the size of three buses off the South Carolina coast on February 4 amid suspicions that it was actually a spy balloon. Those suspicions came true. The balloon, which had flown west to east over the US from late January, was unmistakably equipped with spy equipment, the US State Department reported Thursday. The balloon would be part of a fleet that would have already flown over 40 countries on five continents, controlled by the Chinese military.
The US used high-resolution images from reconnaissance planes last week to learn what the spotted balloon was capable of. “The equipment on board was clearly intended for intelligence gathering and did not match the equipment you would expect to find in a weather balloon,” the State Department said in a statement.
Military observation operation
Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman briefed some 150 foreign diplomats from 40 countries in Washington on the US findings about the balloon. According to the sources of The Washington Post the balloon is part of an extensive military observation operation run by the Chinese military from Hainan Island in the South China Sea. Exactly how many balloons are flying around is not known, but government sources mention dozens of missions in five continents since 2018. China is said to have targeted Japan, India, Vietnam, Taiwan and the Philippines, among others.
China called the shooting down of the “drift weather balloon” an “obvious overreaction” and complained that it was not informed. Pentagon spokesman Brigadier General Patrick Ryder said the U.S. reached out immediately after the shooting. “Unfortunately, the People’s Republic of China has rejected our request,” Ryder said.
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