A US air force fighter jet shot down an unidentified object which was discovered flying over the US state of Alaska, the White House said Friday (local time). The White House said that the US President Joe Biden wanted the object downed.
The White House said that the purpose or the origin of the new object was unclear but it was taken down because it was flying at 40,000 feet because of which it posed a threat to civil aviation.
Kirby: I can confirm the DOD was tracking a high-altitude object over Alaska airspace in the last 24 hours… President Biden ordered the military to down the object and they did pic.twitter.com/b0GJJQRVuX— Acyn (@Acyn) February 10, 2023
White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said that the debris of the object fell into the frozen waters of the Beaufort Sea, according to a report by BBC.
Earlier today, the US shot down an unidentified object over Alaska that was flying at ~40,000 feet (well within the range of commercial flights).A US Air Force HC-130J is now flying off the Alaskan coast, flying as low as 725 feet at times. https://t.co/AbHcysFugz pic.twitter.com/AxJ9FzRWo8
— Flightradar24 (@flightradar24) February 10, 2023
“We do not know who owns it, whether state owned or corporate owned. The president ordered the military to down the object. We don’t understand the full purpose. It was roughly the size of a small car,” Kirby told reporters, according to agencies.
US President Joe Biden was also asked about the object but the President shrugged all questions and laughed when questioned regarding the decision to shoot it down over Alaska.
The US Air Force’s F-22 Raptor used an AIM-9X missile to down the object – the same fighter jet and weapon was used to down the Chinese spy balloon as well- according to Pentagon spokesman Brigadier General Pat Ryder.
Kirby said that the decision to shoot down the object was taken when the fighter jets concluded that the aerial object was unmanned. He said two fighter jets approached the object first.
Pentagon spokesman Ryder said that the authorities recovered a significant amount of debris which is now being processed in defence laboratories for “subsequent analysis”.
Ryder said that officials are yet to determine whether the object travelling north-east was meant for collecting intelligence.
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) said that the F-22 jet fired on the unidentified aircraft somewhere over Deadhorse, northern Alaska, after it had closed on 10 sq miles of US airspace.
The White House told reporters that no other objects of a threatening nature were identified above the US at this time and the downed object did not possess the manoeuvring capabilities like the Chinese spy balloon.
(with inputs from AFP, BBC)
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