President Joe Biden directed that the item be shoot down as it flew over Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. And reached the US-Canada border a US official told Reuters on condition of anonymity.
According to US sources, US military fighter planes shot down an octagonal item near Lake Huron on Sunday. The fourth object downed this month as North American security services have been on high alert for airborne threats.
President Joe Biden directed that the item be shoot down as it flew over Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. And reached the US-Canada border, a US official told Reuters on condition of anonymity.
According to a US official, the item seemed to be octagonal in shape. With the ropes hanging off and no discernible cargo. It did not constitute a military danger or have surveillance capabilities, according to officials. It may have interfered with domestic aviation traffic.
According to one source, the object just discovered above Montana, causing the shutdown of US airspace.
This is the fourth unidentified flying object to be shoot down over North America this month. The first item recognised as a Chinese surveillance balloon by US officials. And the event has strained US relations with Beijing.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau octagonal object :
“Recovery teams are on the ground. Looking to find and analyze the object,” Prime Minister Justin Trudeau told reporters on Sunday.
“The security of citizens is our top priority and that’s why I made the decision to have that unidentified object shot down,” he said. Adding that it had posed a danger to civilian aircraft.
Officials say the newest item was shoot down in US airspace at 20,000 feet with a Sidewinder missile (6,100 m).
US Representative Elissa Slotkin, who represents a district in Michigan near where the incident took place. Said pilots from the US Air Force and National Guard shot down the object. “Great work by all who carried out this mission,” she said.
On February 4, a balloon was shoot down off the coast of South Carolina. A second item was shoot down over sea ice near Deadhorse, Alaska, on Friday. On Saturday, the US fighter plane destroyed a third item above Canada’s Yukon and investigators are still looking for the wreckage.
Following the emergence of a white, eye-catching Chinese airship above American skies earlier this month. North America has been on high alert for airborne 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 cancel a trip to China just hours before. It was schedule to leave.
Fears of surveillance appear to have put US authorities on high alert.
US officials blocked 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 planes to Montana on Saturday to examine a radar abnormality.