Here’s Everything We Know About ‘Unidentified Objects’ Shot Down Over the U.S. and Canada

U.S. fighter jets shot down yet another “unidentified object” on Saturday—this time over Canadian territory—marking the third time they have taken down an object over the past week.

Initial reports of an “unidentified object” early this month turned out to be a Chinese spy balloon, which was likely being used to gather intel as it traversed over several sensitive sites in the U.S. That balloon was later taken down near South Carolina’s coast on Feb. 4.

On Friday, American aircrafts shot down a separate unidentified object near Alaska’s airspace, though it is not clear what the object was or if it was related to China’s surveillance balloon program. Both the objects, the one shot down Friday and the one in Canada on Saturday, were flying at approximately 40,000 feet, which posed a potential risk to passenger planes.
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Chinese officials maintain that the initial spy balloon was a weather-monitoring device that accidentally entered American airspace, but the Biden administration’s assessment of the balloon’s remnants found that it had propellers that could alter its direction.

The administration also found that the incident was just one of multiple high-altitude surveillance missions China has engaged in, affecting more than 40 countries thus far.

Here’s the information we have thus far:

U.S.

On Jan. 28, a 200-foot-tall spy balloon first traveled above the Aleutian Islands near Alaska before it broke into the continental U.S. on Jan. 31. Civilian pilots then spotted the balloon and raised concerns, prompting the Pentagon to admit to its presence in the country on Feb. 2. Officials temporarily ordered a halt to flights coming in and out of Billings, Mont. and sent F-22 stealth fighter jets to the area.

The journey of the balloon was the cause of much debate, as many questioned why officials were waiting to act. American fighter jets later shot down the surveillance balloon off the South Carolina coast on Feb. 4, as President Biden wanted to wait for the object to reach water to prevent pounds of debris from endangering Americans’ homes and lives.

“Our number one concern was how can we take this down, while not creating undue risk to people or property,” a senior defense official told the press during a background briefing call.

The U.S. State Department said the balloon had technology that likely allowed it to collect data on Americans’ communications and location. The Chinese spy balloon’s flightpath went over multiple security sites, including Montana’s Malmstrom Air Force Base, home to nuclear-tipped intercontinental missile fields.

The recent balloon sighting marks one out of at least four similar incidents that happened under the Trump administration—when balloons were reportedly seen making their way to Texas, Florida and Guam—which officials discovered after U-2 spy planes captured photos and collected electronic data of the recent Chinese spy balloon before it was shot down. Defense officials said there was an existing “domain awareness gap” that prevented them from detecting spy balloons that had previously entered U.S. territory.

On Friday, a separate unidentified object, which was flying at 40,000 feet, was shot down near Alaska’s waters “out of an abundance of caution,” according to White House spokesman John F. Kirby. He added that the object “posed a reasonable threat to the safety of civilian flight.”

Officials initially believed the object was a balloon, but are now unsure about who owned the object or what it was after the object broke into pieces when it hit the frozen water, according to the New York Times.

Kirby also told reporters that the object was much smaller than the 200 ft. balloon from earlier in the week and was roughly the size of a “small car.” The object, which was unmanned, was tracked by NORAD for 24 hours after it was spotted on Thursday, and was then shot down.

“We’re calling this an ‘object’ because that’s the best description we have right now,” he said. “We do not know who owns it, whether it’s state-owned or corporate-owned or privately-owned. We just don’t know.”

Canada

On Saturday, another “unidentified object” was shot down by a U.S. military jet. It was initially found in American airspace and then later moved into Canadian territory before being shot down by an F-22 on orders from President Joe Biden and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

The object, which was described as “cylindrical,” was said to be flying at around 40,000 feet as it was shot down before 4 p.m, but while talking to reporters on Saturday night, Canadian Defense Minister Anita Anand said she couldn’t identify exactly what the object was or its origin.

The object was first detected on Friday by the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD), and two F-22 fighter jets from Joint Base Elemendorf-Richardson in Alaska began monitoring the object closely, according to Norad. On Saturday, once the object reached Canadian airspace, it was shot down by a short-range missile (an AIM-9X) near central Yukon, according to officials.

Officials said they hope to be able to recover the object and “determine more details on its purpose or origin,” according to a White House statement released on Saturday.

While no other information has yet been released, officials know that the Chinese balloon that was shot down on Feb. 4 had previously passed through Alaskan and Canadian airspace before making its way through the mainland U.S.

China

China has spotted their own unidentified object near the city of Rhizao and is preparing to shoot it down, Chinese State media reported Sunday.

“Local maritime authorities in East China’s Shandong Province announced on Sunday that they had spotted an unidentified flying object in waters near the coastal city of Rizhao in the province and were preparing to shoot it down, reminding fishermen to be safe via messages,” the Global Times, a state-controlled media outlet, said in a tweet on Sunday.

There has been no further information released on what the object is.