On Friday, the White House confirmed that the object seen flying at a high altitude in Alaska was shot down by an F-22 jet.
Spokesman John Kirby said the unmanned object was “the size of a small car” and, at the time, was traveling at 40,000 ft over a sparsely populated area. He also said that President Joe Biden decided to shoot down the object, which was of unknown origin.
Friday’s operation comes days after the US shot down a Chinese balloon flying over the coast of North Carolina.
Kirby explained that the object posed a “reasonable threat” to civilian aircraft, and its debris had fallen into US waters that are currently frozen.
“The object was flying at an altitude of 40,000 feet and posed a reasonable threat to the safety of civilian flight,” Kirby said. “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.”
“We do not know who owns it, whether it’s state-owned or corporate-owned or privately owned,” Kirby said.
A fighter jet approached the object and assessed nobody onboard before President Biden made the decision to shoot it down.
Kirby noted that its debris field was “much, much smaller” than the suspected spy balloon that was shot down last Saturday, and the debris was being loaded onto vessels and taken to “labs for subsequent analysis,” he said, which “will prove helpful to our further understanding of this balloon and its surveillance capabilities.”
