In a joint operation by the United States and Canada, an unidentified cylindrical object was shot down by a US fighter jet over Canada on Saturday.
The shootdown was the second such action in two days. The incident occurred as North America was on heightened alert following a suspected Chinese spying balloon that had been discovered the previous week.
The object was small and cylindrical in shape and was flying at an altitude of 12,100 metres.
It was shot down at 3:41 EST as it posed a risk to civilian air traffic.
I ordered the take down of an unidentified object that violated Canadian airspace. @NORADCommand shot down the object over the Yukon. Canadian and U.S. aircraft were scrambled, and a U.S. F-22 successfully fired at the object.
— Justin Trudeau (@JustinTrudeau) February 11, 2023
Canadian Defence Minister, Anita Anand, declined to speculate on the object’s origin, but she said it was similar in appearance to the Chinese balloon shot down off the coast of South Carolina.
The North American Aerospace Defense Command detected the object over Alaska late on Friday, and US fighter jets monitored the object as it crossed over into Canadian airspace.
A US F-22 shot down the object using an AIM 9X missile after a close coordination between US and Canadian authorities.
US President Joe Biden authorised the country’s military to work with Canada to take down the high-altitude craft after a call between Biden and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
Aviation authorities also shut down part of the airspace over the northwest US state of Montana after detecting a “radar anomaly” shortly after the object was shot down.
In a sign of jitters over possible intrusions, US fighter jets took to the skies, but they did not identify any object to correlate to the radar hits. The skies were then reopened to commercial air traffic.
On February 4, a US F-22 fighter jet brought down what the US government called a Chinese surveillance balloon off the coast of South Carolina, following its week-long journey across the US and portions of Canada.
The US military had recommended waiting until it was over the ocean out of fear of injuries from falling debris. US personnel have been scouring the ocean to recover debris and the undercarriage of electronic gadgetry since the shootdown of the 60-meter-high (200-foot-tall) Chinese suspected surveillance balloon.