On Friday the U.S. military shot down an object that was spotted flying over Alaska. This was only days after they had shot down the suspected Chinese spy balloon close to the South Carolina coast.
John Kirby, a national security spokesperson for the White House, said that the “high-altitude object” had been tracked by the Defense Department. According to the reports the object was flying at 40,000 feet which could be considered a threat to civilians. Following an order from President Trump, the object was brought down over U.S. orders.
The Pentagon press secretary Brig Gen. Pat Ryder also affirmed this during a briefing on Friday in which he said that the U.S. Northern Command had shot down the object following the direction of President Biden “off the northern coast of Alaska at 1:45 Eastern Standard Time.” He also noted that the aircraft had been brought down over “U.S. territorial water.”
According to Kirby’s press briefing, the government was gathering information on the flying object but they have not yet determined the nature of the object. They also could not tell whether the object was operated by another country, a private individual, or whether it was commercially owned. Kirby did not disclose what type of device it was. As he noted for now the best description that could be given is “object.”
He added that they were still trying to understand the purpose of the object and that official experts were recovering as much of the debris as possible.
