The US military shot down a fourth flying object over Michigan’s Lake Huron. This occurred after the US destroyed unidentified flying objects in US and Canadian airspace on Friday and Saturday.
On Saturday, a US F-22 fighter jet shot down a cylindrical unidentified flying object above Canada, one day after another one was shot down near Alaskan waters and a week after the US military took down a possible Chinese spy balloon off the coast of South Carolina.
A day after the US conducted similar action over Alaska, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau stated that an unidentified object flying high over the Yukon was shot down by a US fighter jet acting on his orders.
The North American Aerospace Defence Command (NORAD), a joint US-Canada organisation that conducts shared airspace defence over the two nations, announced the discovery of an object flying at a high altitude above northern Canada.
Image – Press Trust of India/Representative Photo
Unidentified Flying Object over Lake Huron
On Sunday, another mystery item was shot down over the Great Lakes region. President Joe Biden gave the order to pull it down on Sunday afternoon, near Lake Huron and the Canadian border.
According to a Pentagon statement, the item might have affected commercial aviation traffic because it was travelling at 20,000 feet (6,100 metres). It was spotted Saturday above military outposts in Montana, according to the report.
Defence officials identified the device as unmanned and octagonal in shape, concluding that it posed no military threat. A missile delivered from an F-16 fighter jet took it down at 14:42 local time (Monday 1:18 am IST).
Concerns were increased further by the recent spate of high-altitude objects shot down over North America.
A suspected Chinese surveillance balloon was brought to the ground off the coast of South Carolina on February 4 after orbiting the US mainland for days. According to officials, it was created in China and is used to monitor vital websites.
China stated the object was faulty weather monitoring equipment and denied it was used for surveillance. Tensions between Washington and Beijing rose as a result of the incident and the ensuing heated debate.
After waiting several days for a response, the US spoke with Beijing about the first object, according to a defence official on Sunday. The topic of the discussion was not immediately clear.
Three more high-altitude objects have been shot down by American fighter jets in as many days since the initial incident.
President Biden gave the order to shoot down an unidentified flying object over Alaska on Friday, and a similar object was shot down over the Canadian province of Yukon on Saturday.
Authorities on Unidentified Flying ObjectÂ
Authorities have not revealed the origins or functions of these objects. The search in Alaska has been hampered by frigid conditions, but both the United States and Canada are working hard to recover the wreckage.
According to a White House National Security officer, these devices were substantially smaller and did not closely match the balloon. Until the recovery of the wreckage, the object cannot be identified positively.
Image – Win McNamee/Getty Images
Later that day, the US Air Force general in control of North American airspace said that no possibility – including the unidentified flying object being related to extraterrestrial life – had been ruled out.
According to a senior officer’s statement to ABC News, the three most recent things shot down were most likely weather balloons rather than surveillance devices.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, who had previously informed the broadcaster that intelligence workers mistook the devices for surveillance balloons, refuted this.
Debbie Dingell, a Democrat, joined mounting calls for the White House and defence officials to give additional details. Debbie Dingell was among numerous Michigan lawmakers who applauded the military for shooting down the unidentified flying object over the state on Sunday.
The preceding two weeks have been nothing short of insane, according to Democratic Senator Jon Tester of Montana, speaking to the BBC’s US network CBS. Furthermore, the military requires a plan for assessing both the dangers and the available information.
Republicans have repeatedly criticised the Biden administration for its handling of the first suspected spy balloon, suggesting it should have been pulled down far sooner.
Meanwhile, in response to recent events in the United States and Canada, Defence Secretary Ben Wallace declared that the United Kingdom would conduct a security assessment. According to him, this incident is another indicator of how the global danger scenario is worsening.
