The US used fighter jets to shoot down the flying objects.
(Photo: IMAGO/ZUMA Wire)
Washington The US military shot down another unidentified flying object on Sunday. The incident happened on Sunday over Lake Huron in the state of Michigan, the US Department of Defense said in Washington. President Joe Biden gave the order to shoot it down.
The object was traveling at an altitude of about six kilometers. The trajectory and altitude gave cause for concern that the object could pose a threat to civil aviation. Potential monitoring options for the property would also have posed a risk.
The Pentagon initially did not provide any information about where the missile came from and what it was aiming for. Mysterious flying objects over North America have been puzzling the United States and the world for days.
An F-16 fighter jet took the flying object out of the sky, the Pentagon said. The launch over the lake made it possible to avoid impacts on people on the ground and at the same time improve the chances of debris recovery. The North American Air Defense Command Norad discovered the flying object on Sunday morning and tracked it visually and by radar. The remains should now be recovered to learn more.
US fighter jets shot down two unidentified flying objects on Friday and Saturday: one off the coast of the US state of Alaska, the other over northern Canada. So far it is unclear what kind of objects they were, where they came from and what their goal was. The salvage of debris should also provide answers about the background in these cases.
A week earlier, the US Air Force had brought down a Chinese balloon suspected of being used for espionage purposes off the coast of the state of South Carolina. It was initially unclear whether there could be a connection between the incidents.
Flying objects are said to have had a “cylindrical shape”.
The US government accuses China of using the observation balloon to spy on military installations. 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 further tension in the already strained relationship between the two countries – also because the USA accuses China of operating a large international surveillance program with balloons of this type, with which they have targeted more than 40 countries on five continents.
According to official information, the flying objects over Alaska and Canada were traveling at an altitude of around twelve kilometers. Both are said to have been unmanned and had a “cylindrical shape”. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer told ABC on Sunday, citing the National Security Council, that the two objects shot down on Friday and Saturday are also believed to be balloons, “but much smaller than the first.” who came from China.
On Sunday, the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) temporarily closed part of the airspace over Lake Michigan, which borders Lake Huron. The aim was to ensure safety during a Norad mission, it said.
A temporary closure of airspace over the US state of Montana only caused a stir on Saturday. The background was a “radar anomaly”, said Norad later. Warplanes were sent to investigate.
However, they could not have identified any object that could be linked to the radar hits. Referring to the object shot down in Michigan, the Pentagon said its trajectory and data could link it to the radar signal picked up over Montana, which was flying near sensitive defense installations.
Missing information
The fact that the US military had to use force to take flying objects out of the sky for the fourth time in just a few days is causing increasing unrest. Republican Congressman Jack Bergmann of Michigan wrote on Twitter: “I applaud the decisive action taken by our fighter pilots.” But he also warned: “The American people deserve far more answers than we have.”
The lack of reliable information on the origin and background of the flying objects gives room for all kinds of conjectures. Democratic MP Jim Himes told NBC on Sunday that social media was wildly speculating about an alien invasion or further actions by the Chinese. That’s not helpful. Himes also demanded that more information was urgently needed.
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