U.S. Military Shoots Down High-Altitude Object Over Lake Huron
Another day, another high-altitude object shot down over the skies of North America, this time over Lake Huron.
On Sunday, hours after a Federal Aviation Administration bulletin restricting the airspace over Lake Michigan was issued and cancelled, Michigan Rep. Elissa Slotkin tweeted, “The object has been downed by pilots from the US Air Force and National Guard. Great work by all who carried out this mission both in the air and back at headquarters. We’re all interested in exactly what this object was and it’s purpose.”
The New York Times reports that an F-16 fighter jet shot down the object with a Sidewinder air-to-air missile, with CNN noting the operation was ordered by President Biden. Slotkin added, “As long as these things keep traversing the US and Canada, I’ll continue to ask for Congress to get a full briefing based on our exploitation of the wreckage.”
Earlier on Sunday, following the FAA warning regarding Lake Michigan, Slotkin noted, “Just got a call from @DeptofDefense — our military has an extremely close eye on the object above Lake Huron.”
The Lake Huron incident marks the third consecutive day that the unidentified (but probably a balloon) objects have been shot down over North America: On Saturday, A U.S. fighter aircraft shot down another high-altitude airborne object that violated Canadian airspace on orders from Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. The previous day, President Biden ordered that an object flying 40,000 above Alaska be shot down. Recovery efforts for both objects reportedly remains underway.
In an interview Sunday on This Week, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, said U.S. intelligence agencies believe they were balloons of terrestrial origin, and not UFOs.
“They believe they were [balloons], yes, but much smaller than the first one,” Schumer said. “Both of those — one over Canada, one over Alaska — were at 40,000 feet. Immediately it was determined that that’s a danger to commercial aircraft which also fly at 40,000 feet. And so the second one, in cooperation with the Canadians, the first one with the Americans, took it down. And that’s appropriate.”
Balloon-mania began in late January, when a Chinese spy balloon traversed the U.S. for several days before President Biden ordered it shot down on Feb. 4. Northern command is also continuing its recovery operations of the debris from the surveillance balloon, the Pentagon said in a statement on Saturday.