The Air Force has shot down an object over Alaska’s North Slope less than a week after shooting down a Chinese surveillance balloon off South Carolina. A Pentagon spokesman said Friday's object was “about the size of a small car.” (Via AlaskaBeacon)
A Chinese balloon flies above Billings, Montana, on Feb. 1, 2023.
The shootdown, at 9:45 a.m. Alaska time, took place less than a week after an Air Force fighter jet shot down a Chinese surveillance balloon off the coast of South Carolina.John Kirby, the National Security Council Coordinator for Strategic Communications at the White House, said in a news conference that the object on Friday was “much, much smaller” than the Chinese surveillance balloon and was “about the size of a small car.”President Joe Biden ordered the object be shot down, Kirby said.
A fighter jet inspected it visually, Kirby said. The president gave his order Friday morning after consulting military officials, and a jet conducted a second visual inspection before the balloon was shot down with an air-to-air missile.“They did the best they could, but again the speed and the conditions up there as well as the size of the object made it a little bit more difficult,” he said.
“We will know more once we’re able to potentially recover some of those materials. But the primary concern again was the potential hazard to civilian flight,” he said.over Prudhoe Bay, portions of the North Slope and the Arctic Ocean on Friday morning. At least one flight carrying oilfield workers was delayed, according to a scheduling announcement given to the Beacon by a worker.
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