White House officials said that the Pentagon shot down an unidentified flying object in U.S. airspace off the coast of Alaska on Friday.
The item was flying at around 41,000 feet and constituted a “reasonable threat” to the safety of civilian planes, according to John Kirby, spokesperson for the White House National Security Council.
President Joe Biden ordered the military to shoot down the object, which was characterized as being around the size of a compact vehicle, according to Kirby. No other information on its nature was immediately supplied.
John Kirby says the object downed in the last hour flying over Alaska airspace was "much smaller" than the Chinese spy balloon, roughly the "size of a small car" pic.twitter.com/n3qEuJbyYs
— The Post Millennial (@TPostMillennial) February 10, 2023
The item landed on freezing American seas. Kirby stated that “fighter aircraft” downed the aircraft.
John Kirby: "I can confirm that the Department of Defense was tracking a high altitude object over Alaska airspace in the last 24 hours … [The object] posed a reasonable threat to the safety of civilian flight … fighter aircraft assigned … took down the object" pic.twitter.com/mnhVbOyZFQ
— The Post Millennial (@TPostMillennial) February 10, 2023
Saturday, the United States fired down a suspected Chinese surveillance balloon. Off the coast of South Carolina, officials are still retrieving wreckage from the object that was shot down.