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President Joe Biden ordered the military to shoot down a “high altitude object” flying over Alaskan airspace in the last hour, National Security Council Coordinator for Strategic Communications John Kirby said Friday.
“The object was flying at an altitude of 40,000 feet and posed a reasonable threat to the safety of the civilian flight,” Kirby said at a White House press briefing. “Out of an abundance of caution and at the recommendation of the Pentagon, President Biden ordered the military to down the object, and they did, and it came inside our territorial waters.”
Kirby said the object was much smaller than the Chinese spy balloon — about the “size of a small car” for the object over Alaska as opposed to “two or three buses size” Chinese balloon — that was shot down near South Carolina last Saturday.
U.S. Northern Command took down the object using fighter aircraft over the northeastern part of Alaska, near Canada, Kirby said. The Pentagon doesn’t know who owns the aircraft or whether it’s state-owned or privately owned.
“We don’t have any information that would confirm a stated purpose for this object,” Kirby said.
The object fell into U.S. territorial space, into waters that are currently frozen. Kirby said because of where the object fell, “a recovery effort will be made, and we’re hopeful that it will be successful.”
Kirby also confirmed that a military pilot assessed the object was not manned, and that there is no indication of the object having surveillance capabilities.
Source: Politico
