Prior to this, three objects – including one described by Washington as a Chinese spy balloon – had been shot down over the United States or Canada in a week.
By Le Figaro with AFP
Posted update
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The new “objetFlyer Detected Near Lake Huron Shot Down On President’s Order Joe Biden and did not representmilitary threatfor American soil, said a senior administration official on Sunday, February 12.
«As a precaution and on the recommendation of the military command, President Biden ordered that the unidentified object be shot downsaid the official. “We assessed it was not a military threat to anything on the ground“, he added
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This is the third ‘object’ to be shot down in three days by Americans in their country and Canadaand the fourth in less than ten days counting the chinese ball described by Washington as a spy device and which was targeted by a missile on February 4 following flying over part of the United States.
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The new objectwas shot down by US Air Force and National Guard pilotstweeted Michigan Democrat Elissa Slotkin, while fellow Republican Jack Bergman spoke of a “object (…) decommissioned over Lake Huron“, located in the north of the country. Contacted by AFP, the Pentagon had not yet reacted. “The American People Deserve Many More Answers Than We Have“, added Jack Bergman on Twitter, reflecting the growing questions in the country and the political class on these events.
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The United States believes that the first officially detected object, a balloon, was controlled by chinese army and was part of a fleet sent by Beijing over more than 40 countries on five continents, for espionage purposes. The Chinese government assures that it was a civilian aircraft used for research purposes, mainly meteorological.
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Two other flying objects were then shot down by American forces, one Friday over Alaska, the other Saturday in Canada. In the evening, the Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau must go to the province of Yukon, to the scene where the last was shot.
Restrictions
A sign that authorities are on high alert, the airspace over part of Lake Michigan in the northern United States, has been temporarily closed Sunday for reasons related to the “National Defense“, according to the regulator of the American civil aviation (FAA). “These restrictions have been put in place to ensure the safety of air traffic in the area during Norad operations.“, the command of the aerospace defense for North America, explained in a press release the Norad.
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The day before, a similar measure had been taken in Montana. A fighter plane, dispatched to investigate a “radar anomaly“, had not identified a”objetflying according to the military. On Sunday, however, Montana elected official Matt Rosendale said he was in “contact constantwith the military, andthey just told me that they are sure that there is indeed an object and that it was not an anomaly“, he tweeted in the followingnoon. Washington and Ottawa were still busy collecting the remains of the devices on Sunday.