U.S. downs unidentified object over Lake Huron, third destroyed since Chinese spy balloon

In a dramatic turn of events, U.S. military fighter jets shot down an octagonal object near Lake Huron on Sunday, according to U.S. officials. This marks the fourth such incident this month, as North American security forces remain on high alert for airborne threats. President Joe Biden ordered the object to be shot down as it traveled over Michigan’s Upper Peninsula and neared Lake Huron on the U.S.-Canada border.

The object appeared to be octagonal in structure, with strings hanging off but no discernable payload, according to a U.S. official. It did not pose a military threat or have surveillance capabilities, but could have potentially interfered with domestic air traffic. The object was recently detected over Montana, prompting the closure of U.S. airspace, one official said.

The first object was a balloon shot down off the coast of South Carolina on Feb. 4, followed by another shot down over sea ice near Deadhorse, Alaska, and a third destroyed over Canada’s Yukon. U.S. officials identified the first object as a Chinese surveillance balloon, straining U.S. relations with Beijing. China denies the first balloon was being used for surveillance and says it was a civilian research craft.

U.S. Representative Elissa Slotkin, who represents a district near the incident, said pilots from the U.S. Air Force and National Guard shot down the object. “Great work by all who carried out this mission,” she wrote on Twitter. The latest object was shot down using a Sidewinder missile in U.S. airspace at an altitude of 20,000 feet (6,100 m).

North America has been on high alert for aerial intrusions after the appearance of a white, eye-catching Chinese airship over American skies earlier this month. That 200-foot-tall (60-meter-high) balloon, which Americans have accused Beijing of using to spy on the United States, led to an international incident and caused Secretary of State Antony Blinken to call off a planned trip to China.

Twice in 24 hours, U.S. officials closed airspace, only to reopen it swiftly. The Federal Aviation Administration briefly closed space above Lake Michigan on Sunday, while the U.S. military scrambled fighter jets in Montana to investigate a radar anomaly on Saturday.

“The security of citizens is our top priority and that’s why I made the decision to have that unidentified object shot down,” said Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, adding that it posed a danger to civilian aircraft.

U.S. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said U.S. officials think two of the latest objects were smaller balloons than the original one, while the White House said they “did not closely resemble” the Chinese balloon. “We will not definitively characterize them until we can recover the debris, which we are working on,” said a spokesperson.

Canadian counterparts trying to piece together what was shot down over the Yukon may face challenges, as the territory is a sparsely populated region in Canada’s far northwest and can be brutally cold in the winter. However, temperatures are unusually mild for this time of year, which could ease the recovery effort.

House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Michael McCaul told Fox News that the balloon shot down over the South Carolina coast had been on a mission to get imagery of sensitive American nuclear sites. Republican lawmaker Mike Turner suggested the White House might be overcompensating for its previously lax monitoring of American airspace, but added, “I would prefer them to be trigger-happy than to be permissive.” Republicans have criticized the Biden administration over its handling of the incursion by the suspected Chinese spy balloon.

(Inputs from Reuters)

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