Washington/New York (EFE).- The United States Army has shot down, by order of the president, Joe Biden, a new unidentified flying object, this time while it was flying over Lake Huron, in the state of Michigan, as confirmed the Pentagon.
It is the third “object” neutralized in the last three days in North America, after the one shot down on Friday over Alaska and on Saturday in Canada.
It also occurred eight days after the downing of the alleged Chinese thorn balloon that flew over the country for several days until it was shot down in Atlantic waters.
As explained by the Department of Defense in a statement, by order of President Biden, an Air Force F-16 shot down at 2:42 p.m. (7:42 p.m. GMT) this new device that was at 20,000 feet, just over 6,000 meters above sea level. , flying over Lake Huron in the state of Michigan.
“Its path and your altitude raised concerns, including that it could pose a danger to civil aviation,” said the Pentagon, which also explained that the demolition was decided in an area where it was possible to prevent the debris from harming anyone. and at the same time makes it possible to collect them.
There are no indications that any civilian has been affected by the demolition of this device detected by the North American Air Defense Command (NORAD) in the morning.
The Pentagon also warned that in view of the direction the device was taking it can “reasonably connect this object to the radar signal collected over Montana, near sensitive locations for the Department of Defense.”
It was precisely in Montana where the supposed Chinese spy balloon that crossed a good part of the country last week was seen for the first time until it was shot down by the US in Atlantic waters, off the coast of South Carolina.
the first information
The Pentagon insisted that it did not consider this device a threat on the ground but a risk to civil aviation and a threat due to its “potential surveillance capabilities.”
The Army will now work to recover the remains of the object.
Michigan Congressman Jack Bergman was among the first to announce the demolition of the device this afternoon.
On his Twitter account, Bergman said that he had been in contact with the Department of Defense about this operation in the Great Lakes area, near the Canadian border, which became known after a temporary closure of airspace over Lake Michigan. .
The Republican congressman thanked the “resolute action” of the American combat pilots, but stressed that the population “deserves many more responses” than have been received so far about these episodes.
Also via Twitter, Michigan Democratic Congresswoman Elissa Slotkin said shortly after that US Air Force and National Guard pilots had shot down an object they had been tracking over Lake Huron.
The US believes that the last two flying objects were balloons
There is also not much information about the last two shot down, while work is being done to recover their remains.
Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer says both are believed to be balloons, albeit smaller than the alleged Chinese spy balloon intercepted last week.
The senator, informed about these objects by the White House National Security Adviser, Jake Sullivan, affirms that the devices were flying at 12,000 meters of altitude, posing a “danger” to commercial aviation.
Schumer stressed that until a few months ago the United States did not know anything about these balloons, and assured that the Army and US intelligence are focused on collecting all the necessary information.
The detection and shooting down of these flying objects occurs in the midst of the diplomatic crisis between Washington and Beijing after last week the United States shot down an alleged Chinese spy balloon that flew over a good part of its territory.
The Pentagon does not know if the last three flying objects shot down are Chinese
The United States Department of Defense is currently unaware of the origin of the three devices shot down in the last three days in the US and Canada and cannot yet confirm whether they are Chinese, as was the spy balloon shot down on the 4th.
In a telephone press appearance, the US Undersecretary of Defense and Hemispheric Affairs, Melissa Dalton, explained that both the device shot down over Lake Huron, in Michigan, as well as the two previous ones in Canada and Alaska, were shot down “As a precaution”, and stressed that “there has been no collateral damage in any of the operations in the last week.”
As explained by Dalton and the head of the North American Aerospace Defense Command (Norad), General Glen VanHerck, some of the remains of the object shot down on Sunday in Michigan have possibly fallen into Canadian waters of Lake Huron, and are in contact constant with the government of that country, both for demolition operations and for the collection of remains.
Since the Chinese spy balloon was located and shot down days later, the US Department of Defense has increased surveillance of its airspace, which “partly” explains the increase in objects detected in recent days, Dalton said.
The undersecretary acknowledged that there may be many objects flying over the country whose purpose is not harmful, such as artifacts for “legitimate research”, but since none of those killed these days could be identified, the president decided to demolish them ” For caution”.
The United States continues to call these devices “objects”, without going into their description, and General VanHerck said that is why he does not classify them as balloons, while the one that was shot down on February 4 was “clearly” a balloon.
He did admit that they may be devices “with some kind of balloon inside” although they may also be moved by a propulsion system. He insisted in any case that they are going to analyze the remains to be able to give more information about it.
In this case, the governments of Canada and the United States discuss and assess whether it may pose a risk to their national security, for example if it flies over sensitive defense areas such as missile silo fields, if it may affect the security of civil aviation or if it may pose a risk to people on the ground.
China also detects unknown objects in its airspace
Meanwhile, authorities in a city in eastern China claimed to have also detected “unknown objects” in the national airspace.
As published by the local press on Monday, the Maritime Development Office of the Jimo district, in the city of Qingdao (east), reported this Sunday the sighting of several “unknown objects in the sky.”
“Unknown objects have been detected near the coast of the town of Rizhao. The departments in charge are preparing to bring them down,” the authorities alerted the fishermen who were fishing in the area by text message.
So far, no information has been provided on the nature of the objects or their possible demolition.
Unverified videos circulating on Chinese social media show a row of bright spots in the sky over a coastal area.
I don’t think the title of your article matches the content lol. Just kidding, mainly because I had some doubts after reading the article. https://www.binance.info/zh-CN/join?ref=P9L9FQKY