Toronto (Canada) (EFE).- Canadian search teams are working to recover the remains of the flying object shot down on Saturday by combat planes in a remote area of northwest Canada.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau reveals that Canadian teams are already in the area where the remains of the artifact fell.
Trudeau adds that the decision was made to shoot down the object when it was flying over the Canadian territory of Yukon, at an altitude of about 12,000 meters and 160 kilometers from the Canadian border with Alaska (USA), due to the risk it posed to the aviation.
“He was a threat to civil aviation and a potential threat to Canadians,” Trudeau added.
Although the Canadian authorities waited to shoot down the object until it was possible to identify it visually, the Government has not wanted to provide any details about the device.
Canada shoots down an unknown object
Canadian Defense Minister Anita Anand limited herself to saying it was a cylindrical-shaped object similar to, but smaller than, the Chinese balloon shot down by the United States on February 4 off the coast of North Carolina.
Trudeau affirms today that the analysis of the remains will be “very important” to determine their nature.
The Canadian prime minister revealed on Saturday that the trajectory of the object shot down over Yukon had been monitored by the North American Aerospace Defense Command (Norad) for 24 hours.
Government sources quoted by the Canadian public broadcaster, CBC, indicate that the object entered Canadian airspace after passing through Alaska.
The object was shot down on Saturday by an AIM-9X infrared missile fired by a US F-22 fighter jet at 3:41 p.m. Ottawa time (2041 GMT) in central Yukon Territory.
The F-22 was operating alongside Canadian CF-18 fighter jets and a CP-140 Aurora patrol aircraft, also from the Canadian Air Force.
Canadian military authorities said the US F-22 was tasked with firing the missile because at the time the order was issued it was in the best position to shoot down the object.