General Patrick S. Ryder made a statement concerning the high altitude object that traveled into US airspace today and was subsequently shot down by the U.S. military. He said that the military craft used to shoot down the object was an F-22 and that it employed an A9X to take down the object.
The object was traveling at a north easterly direction, at approximately 40,000 feet, which the White House determined to be risking the flight safety of other aircraft and that’s what prompted the decision to shoot it down. As far as recovery efforts go, they are employing HC 130, HH60, and CH 47 participating in the recovery efforts.
U.S. Military shoots down another “high altitude object” over Alaska
We know the last balloon that they shot down in American airspace on Feb. 4th 2023, was a Chinese surveillance balloon that was sent to gather information and according to General Ryder we have gathered a lot of information about that particular program in the last couple of years. However, this new object, we are not sure about the origin of it yet and that makes it a bit worrisome.
Is it Chinese, or perhaps another country that doesn’t like us all that much? The General said that the object was the size of a small car, but was determined to be a threat. Apparently this is not the only object that has flown over Alaska but due to the altitude it was determined to be a threat.
Currently they are still assessing the surveillance capabilities of the other balloon, and while they do know a lot, General Ryder was unable to really comment on how much information has been gathered. It seems that currently these objects are being treated as two separate objects, not just two different balloons.
When asked if the object had any manueverability Ryder said that it didn’t appear to have any, but that they were still examining the object. He said that what made this balloon different is the length and duration that it remained over American airspace. He did say that NORAD did not have the capability to take down a non-hostile aircraft but this object was determined to be potentially hostile toward civillian aircraft.
So… is this a UFO? We’ll keep our ears to the ground. Stay tuned!!!