US shoots down ‘high-altitude object’ in Alaska
After shooting down the Chinese spy balloon in the Atlantic, the United States reports that it has shot down another “flying object” in Alaskan airspace.
After shooting down a Chinese spy balloon in the Atlantic last week, the US military announced that it shot down a second “high-altitude object” this Friday over Alaskan airspace. National Security Council official John Kirby confirmed that the Department of Defense was tracking the object for the past 24 hours.
“The object was flying at an altitude of 40,000 feet and posed a reasonable threat to the safety of civilian flight,” said Kirby, adding that the action was taken “out of an abundance of caution, and at the recommendation of the Pentagon.”
It was President Biden who made the ultimate call to take “down the object” as “it came inside our territorial waters and those waters right now are frozen.”
Did the object belong to China?
According to Kirby, fighter jets assigned to US Northern Command shot down the object "within the last hour," he noted at 2:30 p.m. m. ET. Kirby also noted that the United States does not refer to this object as a globe and it has not yet been attributed to China or any other entity.
The United States shoots down the Chinese spy balloon and explains its intentions
Last Saturday, the US military shot down the Chinese spy balloon that was caught floating over US territory. The 'Chinese spy balloon' was shot down by fighter jets off the East Coast over the Ocean Atlantic, just east of Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. Subsequently, recovery efforts for its study began.
Since it was captured, the US government has maintained the version that it was a surveillance balloon. However, the Chinese government claimed that it was a civilian weather balloon that deviated from its course.
After the Chinese balloon was shot down, the Secretary of Defense, Lloyd Austin, reported that it was being used by the China to monitor strategic sites in the continental United States.
According to the statement, President Biden gave his authorization to shoot down the surveillance balloon three days before the military action. However, the plan was not carried out until Saturday to ensure that it did not pose a risk to the US population that was in the trajectory of the balloon. When it crossed into the Atlantic the president made the final call to have the balloon taken out.