Washington: Almost a week after the US shot down a Chinese spy balloon off the coast of South Carolina in the Atlantic Ocean, the US fighter jet Friday shot down an aerial object, the size of a small car.
The object was flying with payloads at a height of about 40,000 feet off the northern coast of Alaska. The action was taken on the direction of President Joe Biden, Pentagon Press Secretary Brigadier General Pat Ryder said.
Ryder said the unidentified object posed a threat to civilian air traffic. So it was a decided to shoot it down.
Object was not similar to Chinese balloon
The object was about the size of a small car, not similar in size or shape to the high-altitude surveillance balloon that was taken down off the coast of South Carolina on February 4, Ryder said.
The news of shooting down the unidentified object was first announced by the White House.
Origin of the object is not known yet
However, the origin of the object is not known so far, so it cannot be said if it originated from China or not. It had hovered over continental America for several days after entering the US airspace on January 30 in Montana.
Pentagon Press Secretary Brigadier General Pat Ryder said the object 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.
Recovery of debris of Chinese balloon shot last week continues
Meanwhile regarding the balloon shot down last week, China has admitted that the balloon was theirs but denied that it was for surveillance purposes. China claimed it was for weather monitoring and that it had drifted off course.
The US Northern Command continued its operation to recover the remains of the Chinese high-altitude surveillance balloon that was down off the coast of South Carolina.
"Recovery teams have mapped the debris field and are in the process of searching for and identifying debris on the ocean floor. Debris that's been recovered so far is being loaded onto vessels, taken ashore, catalogued and then moved onwards to labs for subsequent analysis," Ryder said.
He said that a significant amount of debris has been located so far that will prove helpful in understanding the balloon and its surveillance capabilities.
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