Toronto (AFP) Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said a joint US-Canadian military operation, the latest in a series of mysterious airstrikes, resulted in the destruction of the object.
“Canadian and US aircraft jumbled up, US F-22 successfully fired at object,” Trudeau tweeted Saturday.
At 4 p.m. (2041 GMT) after the object was shot down, aviation officials closed part of the airspace in the northwestern state of Montana after discovering what they called a “radar anomaly,” the U.S. Northern Command said.
As a sign of nervousness about a possible intruder, Union command said a U.S. fighter jet flew over, but “couldn’t identify an object that correlated with the radar strike.” The skies have since reopened to civilian air travel.
Canadian Defense Minister Anita Anand said the object shot down in the Yukon was “small and cylindrical” in shape. “The object was flying at an altitude of approximately 40,000 feet and illegally entered Canadian airspace and posed a reasonable threat to civilian flight safety,” Anand told reporters.
Prime Minister Trudeau said Canadian forces stationed in the Yukon would “collect debris from the object and analyze it.”
He said he had spoken to President Joe Biden about the recent intrusion, and Anand also said she had spoken to US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin.
The new incursions into Alaska and the Yukon come after the US said on Wednesday that Chinese spy balloons, like the one shot down on February 4, were suspected to be part of a “fleet” spanning five continents. NATO also expressed concern.
However, Anand said, “It would be unwise to speculate on the object’s origin at this time.”
US and Canadian aircraft rallied Saturday to attack the object, according to the Pentagon and Anand. Pentagon spokesman Pat Ryder said in a statement, referring to the North American Aerospace Defense Command, “President Biden announced today that NORAD will work with Canada to shoot down a high-altitude aerial object in northern Canada. We gave permission to the assigned U.S. fighter planes,” he said.
The object shot down over the Yukon River, which borders Alaska, came after a fighter jet shot down another off the north coast of the U.S. state near the village of Deadhorse on Friday.
Search and recovery operations for the remains of the object continued on Saturday, but were hampered by “windy cold, snow and limited sunlight” in the Arctic, Northern Command said in a statement.
“Rescue operations are taking place on sea ice,” it said, adding that the Department of Defense was “unable to provide further details about the object, including its function, purpose, or origin.”
A gigantic balloon loaded with electronics, dubbed a spy ship by the Pentagon, flew over Canada and the United States last month, amid diplomatic tensions with China after a supposedly harmless weather balloon admitted it veered off course. caused The balloon’s path passed over several US military installations, including silos that house intercontinental ballistic missiles carrying nuclear warheads.
Biden’s decision to allow the balloon to cross the mainland unhindered before launching onto the water was thrashed by Republican lawmakers.
A federal recovery team, including both divers and unmanned remotely operated mini-submarines, continues to search for debris from the balloon in the shallow waters offshore, according to a Northern Command statement.
U.S. officials said images of the balloon showed it was equipped with surveillance equipment that could intercept communications and a solar array that would power several sensors.
