Anchorage Just over a day after a mysterious flying object was shot down over the USA, a second object was brought down from the sky in Canada. The flying object over northern Canada was shot down by a US fighter jet, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said on Saturday.
“I have ordered the downing of an unidentified object that violated Canadian airspace,” he wrote on Twitter. Shortly before, the North American Air Defense Command Norad had announced that after a flying object was shot down over Alaska on Friday, another had been discovered at high altitude over northern Canada.
Trudeau went on to say that Canadian and American fighter jets were involved in the downing over the Yukon Territory in the north-west of the country. An American F-22 aircraft then fired at the object. “Canadian forces will now recover and analyze the debris from the object.” Trudeau said he also spoke to US President Joe Biden on the matter. However, it was initially unclear where the flying object had come from and what purpose it served.
Only on Friday did the US military shoot down a suspected similar aircraft over Alaska. The US government justified the action by saying that civilian air traffic was endangered. The object over Alaska was said to be about the size of a small car, much smaller than the Chinese balloon. According to the first findings, the object should not have been manoeuvrable itself.
Arctic weather conditions make salvage difficult
As of Saturday, the US military had no information about his origin. “Currently, we have no further details about the object, including its capabilities, purpose or origin,” said the Northern Command (Northcom) command staff. The salvage work continued, but would be made more difficult by the “arctic weather conditions”. These included freezing winds, snow and limited daylight. The salvage of the debris takes place on the sea ice.
The flying object over Alaska was first sighted on Thursday evening (local time), said the communications director of the National Security Council, John Kirby. US President Joe Biden was informed immediately and gave the firing order on Friday morning. US fighter jets had previously approached the object. The pilots would have ensured that the flying object was unmanned. CNN, citing a US government official, reported that the object appeared to have had no surveillance equipment.
It was shot down off the Alaskan coast near the Canadian border – not far from the Prudhoe Bay oil fields. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said the government in Ottawa was also aware of the project. According to the military, the shooting down posed no major risk to people or buildings on the ground.
The incident was reminiscent of the Chinese balloon allegedly used for espionage purposes that the US Air Force had brought down from the sky a week ago. According to military information, this had flown at about 18 kilometers but significantly higher than the object over Alaska, which was traveling at an altitude of 12 to 13 kilometers.
Unidentified flying objects not uncommon
The US military let the Chinese balloon hover over the American mainland for several days and then shot it down over the Atlantic off the coast of the state of South Carolina. The United States accuses China’s government of using it to spy on military facilities. Beijing, on the other hand, spoke of a civilian research balloon that had gone off course – and described the launch as an “overreaction”. The incident caused additional tension in the already strained relationship between the two countries.
Unidentified flying objects are not uncommon. In 2020, the US Department of Defense established a task force to analyze “unexplained airborne phenomena that could potentially pose a threat to US national security.”
Since then, the group has published reports on “Unidentified Aerial Phenomena” (UAP) at irregular intervals – most recently a few weeks ago. It emerged that the US military has no explanation for numerous observations of unidentified flying objects.
Other sightings, however, were classified as “unremarkable” – they could be traced back to common objects in the air – such as drones, balloons and debris such as plastic bags, the report said. Reports of inexplicable celestial phenomena have increased. However, the Pentagon had made it clear that no evidence of extraterrestrial life had been found.
More: After the launch of the Chinese balloon in US airspace, the tones from Beijing have so far remained remarkably defensive. Nevertheless, the relationship with the USA is heavily burdened.