On Saturday, a US F-22 fighter jet downed an unidentified cylindrical object over Canada, marking the second time in as many days that this has happened. North America was on edge as a result of the week-long Chinese surveillance balloon incident, which attracted international attention.
Meanwhile, the US military sent out fighter jets to examine a radar anomaly in Montana that led to a brief federal airspace shutdown.
Initially announcing the shootdown on Saturday over the northern Yukon Territory, Justin Trudeau of Canada stated that Canadian soldiers will recover and examine the debris.
Anita Anand, Canada’s Minister of Defence, refrained from making any assumptions regarding the origin of the cylindrical object.
She refrained from using the word “balloon,” but noted that it was smaller than the Chinese balloon that had been shot down off the coast of South Carolina a week earlier, despite having a comparable look.
It was shot down at 3:41 EST (2041 GMT) as it was aloft at 40,000 feet (12,200 m), endangering civilian aviation traffic.
Anand stated at a news conference that “There is no reason to believe that the impact of the object in Canadian territory is of any public concern,”
The Pentagon said NORAD detected the object over Alaska late on Friday.
As the object entered Canadian airspace, Canadian CF-18 and CP-140 aircraft joined the formation. US fighter jets from Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, Alaska, kept an eye on the item.
According to a statement from the Pentagon’s Brig. Gen. Patrick Ryder, “A U.S. F-22 shot down the object in Canadian territory, using an AIM 9X missile following close co-ordination between U.S. and Canadian authorities,”
Following a phone chat between Biden and Trudeau, US President Joe Biden gave the go-ahead for the US military to collaborate with Canada to shoot down the high-altitude craft, according to the Pentagon.
