US shoots down unidentified high-altitude aerial object in Alaska

Washington, February 11

A US fighter jet Friday shot down an object, the size of a small car, flying with payloads at a height of about 40,000 feet off the northern coast of Alaska on the direction of President Joe Biden, officials said.

According to Pentagon Press Secretary Brigadier General Pat Ryder, the object, whose origin is not known so far, was first detected inside American airspace on Thursday. It posed a “reasonable threat to civilian air traffic”, he said.

US Northern Command is beginning recovery operations now,” Ryder said, adding the F-22 fighter jet deployed an AIM-9X missile to take down the object.

This came almost a week after the US shot down a Chinese spy balloon off the coast of South Carolina in the Atlantic Ocean. It had hovered over continental America for several days after entering the US airspace on January 30 in Montana.