US fighter jet shoots down ‘object the size of small car that posed a reasonable threat’ flying at 40,000ft over Alaska
A US fighter jet has shot down an unidentified flying object over Alaska on Friday after Pentagon officials determined it “posed a reasonable threat.”
The US military was tracking the object over the last 24 hours, and it was ordered shot down by President Joe Biden after it entered Alaskan airspace.
Pentagon Press Secretary John Kirby said the object – which they are not identifying as a balloon – was roughly the size of a small vehicle.
“The object was flying at an altitude of 40,000 feet and posed a reasonable threat to the safety of civilian flight,” Kirby told reporters at the White House briefing.
“Out of an abundance of caution, and at the recommendation of the Pentagon, President Biden ordered the military to down the object, and they did, and it came inside our territorial waters, and those waters right now are frozen.”
He said the object did not have a “significant payload” like the first surveillance balloon shot down over the weekend.
US officials said it was too early to determine whether the object belongs to the Chinese government or a private enterprise.
Unlike the first Chinese spy balloon, officials will be able to recover the remains after it was shot down over frozen waters, Kirby said.
He added that officials did not understand the full purpose of the object, adding that it did not appear to maneuver like a spy balloon.
Kirby said the US will “remain vigilant about our airspace” after the latest incident.
RISING TENSIONS
The action comes less than a week after the Pentagon shot down a Chinese spy balloon off the coast of South Carolina.
The Chinese-origin object traveled into the US continent from Canada early last week, spotted over Billings, Montana, on February 1.
Officials said the balloon had flown over areas in Montana containing sensitive airbases and nuclear missiles in underground silos.
Montana is home to the Malmstrom Air Force Base, which houses one of the three nuclear missile fields in the US.
It is home to 150 ICBM silos.
The Chinese government claimed the balloon was “for weather research” and inadvertently crossed into US territory due to wind gusts.
President Biden gave a thumbs-up sign earlier Saturday when asked if the US planned to shoot the suspected spy balloon down – described as the size of three bus lengths.
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