4 min readNew DelhiFeb 13, 2023 07:44 AM IST
First published on: Feb 12, 2023 at 03:11 PM IST
An unidentified object was shot down by a US fighter jet on the orders of President Joe Biden and Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, over northern Canada on Saturday (February 11), according to American and Canadian officials. This is the third such object which has been taken down over North America in the last week.
In a statement posted on Twitter, Prime Minister Trudeau said, “I ordered the takedown of an unidentified object that violated Canadian airspace”. He said he spoke to President Biden on Saturday afternoon to discuss the operation. “Canadian Forces will now recover and analyse the wreckage of the object,” Trudeau said.
The shooting down of the object came a day after a similar object was taken down over Alaska by another American F-22 fighter jet. Last weekend, a Chinese surveillance balloon was taken down by F-22s off the coast of South Carolina.
What do we know so far?
The latest unidentified object was spotted by North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) on Friday (February 10) evening after which F-22 fighter jets from Joint Base Elemendorf-Richardson, Alaska, were sent up to examine it, according to Pentagon Press Secretary Brigadier General Patrick Ryder.
Speaking to the media, Canadian Defence Minister Anita Anand said that the “cylindrical object”, flying at around 40,000 feet, was smaller than the Chinese surveillance balloon that was shot down previously.
The decision to shoot down the object was jointly taken by President Biden and Prime Minister Trudeau on Saturday.
“The object was flying at an altitude of approximately 40,000 feet, had unlawfully entered Canadian airspace and posed a reasonable threat to the safety of civilian flight. The object was shot down approximately 100 miles from the Canada-United States border over Canadian territory in central Yukon,” Anand told the media. She didn’t clarify if the object flying over Canada came from China.
As per a CNN report, the object was taken down with an AIM-9X missile from an American F-22 — the same missile and fighter jet that shot down an unidentified object on Friday, and the Chinese surveillance balloon on February 4.
The Pentagon Press Secretary said that the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) will be “working closely” with Canadian police to investigate the matter.
What had happened in the two previous instances?
The Saturday operation is the third such incident in the past week. On Friday, another unspecified object was tracked and taken down over Alaska at the orders of President Biden.
According to the AP, the Alaska Command and the Alaska National Guard, along with the FBI and local law enforcement, were conducting a search and recovery for the remains of Friday’s object, which was the size of a small car.
“Arctic weather conditions, including wind chill, snow, and limited daylight, are a factor in this operation, and personnel will adjust recovery operations to maintain safety,” said officials. They also added that they didn’t have any further details about the object, its capabilities, purpose or origin.
In a statement, Pentagon Press Secretary Ryder said that the object was flying at 40,000 feet, which made it a risk to civilian traffic.
On February 4, two US F-22 fighter jets shot down a large white balloon off the coast of South Carolina. The American defence officials said that it was part of a fleet of Chinese balloons that have been conducting surveillance for “several years”.
The Chinese authorities have denied the allegation and said that the balloon was a weather device that had gone astray.
The shooting down of the object came a day after a similar object was taken down over Alaska by another American F-22 fighter jet. Last weekend, a Chinese surveillance balloon was taken down by F-22s off the coast of South Carolina. (Photo: AP) 
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