prime minister of canada Justin Trudeau said on Saturday that a US fighter jet on his orders shot down an unidentified object that was flying over the Yukon, a day after a similar action by the US. Alaska,
North American Aerospace Defense Command, a joint U.S.-Canada The organization that provides the shared defense of airspace over the two nations said it had detected an object flying at a high altitude over northern Canada. It was not immediately clear how high it was flying or what it was.
Trudeau said he has also spoken to the President Joe BidenWho himself ordered the dropping of an unknown object on remote Alaska on Friday.
A spokesman, Major Olivier Galant, said both Canadian and American jets operating as part of NORAD were deployed. Jets scrambled and it was an American jet that shot it down.
F-22 fighter jets have now shot down three objects in the airspace over the US and Canada in seven days, a surprising development in the skies that is raising questions about what, exactly, was hovering above and who shot them down. sent it.
At least one of the downed objects is believed to have been a spy balloon from China, but the other two have not yet been identified. Trudeau said the Canadian military would recover the wreckage for study.
White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said a day earlier that an object the size of a small car had been shot down in remote Alaska. Officials could not say whether it contained any surveillance equipment, where it came from or what its purpose was.
Kirby said it was shot down because it was flying at an altitude of about 40,000 feet (13,000 m) and posed a “reasonable threat” to the safety of civilian flights, not because of any knowledge that it was engaged in surveillance. Was.
Recovery operations on sea ice near Deadhour, Alaska, continued Saturday, according to the US Northern Command.
In a statement, Northern Command said it had no new details about what the object was. It said the Alaska Command and the Alaska National Guard, along with the FBI and local law enforcement, were conducting the search and recovery.
“Arctic weather conditions including wind chill, snow and limited daylight are a factor in this operation, and crews will adjust recovery operations to maintain safety,” the statement said.
Last Saturday, US authorities shot down a large white balloon off the coast of South Carolina.
The Pentagon has said that the balloon was part of a larger surveillance program that China has been conducting for “many years”. The US has said Chinese balloons have flown over dozens of countries on five continents in recent years, and it has learned more about the balloon program after closely monitoring one shot near South Carolina.
China responded that it reserved the right to “take further action” and criticized the US for “a clear overreaction and serious violation of international practice”.
The Navy continued survey and recovery activities on the ocean floor off South Carolina, and the Coast Guard was providing security. The Northern Command said additional debris had been cleared on Friday and additional operations would continue as weather permits.