The US military, on orders from President Joe Biden, shot down an “object flying at high altitude” over Alaska, a White House spokesman said, Friday, without giving further details about its nature or source.
A spokesman for the US National Security Council, John Kirby, said that this “object”, which he said was “the size of a small car”, posed a “threat to the security of air navigation”.
“We do not know if the flying object that was shot down by the American fighter belongs to a country or a private party,” he added.
He explained that the flying object was flying at an altitude of 40,000 feet in the skies of Alaska, which posed a threat to air navigation.
Kirby noted that Biden ordered the shooting down of the unidentified object “out of caution.”
newspaper quotes”The New York TimesAn American official was quoted as saying that there were no “indications of a military threat” to people on the ground from the object.
Officials said they could not confirm whether there was any monitoring equipment on the downed object.
The action comes less than a week after a US fighter jet shot down a Chinese spy balloon that had flown over the United States.
Officials said the latest breach occurred Thursday night over Alaska. One official described the situation as still evolving, and said it was not clear whether the object was from a hostile power, or a lost commercial or research operation.