The unidentified craft shot down near Michigan was a “small metal balloon with a tethered payload underneath,” a Pentagon memo obtained by CNN revealed Monday.
The memo said the object, which was shot down Saturday as it rose above Lake Huron near the eastern portion of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, traversed near “US sensitive locations” before being taken out became.
The details came out as the White House laughed at claims that aliens were involved after the Pentagon refused to rule out that the objects could be linked to extraterrestrials.
Meanwhile, President Joe Biden has not publicly addressed the latest tranche of kills as the public demands answers as to who they were, who sent them and the threat they posed.
The legislature also has questions. The senators will receive a secret briefing on the objects on Tuesday morning.
Timeline of recent UFO sightings over US airspace
Wednesday, February 1st: Chinese balloon sighted over Montana (this is not referred to as a UFO as it has been identified as a balloon)
Saturday, February 4: A Chinese balloon is shot down off the coast of South Carolina after drifting across country
Thursday, February 9: The first UFO is spotted off the coast of northern Alaska
Friday February 10: UFO shot down over Deadhorse, Alaska
Saturday February 11: Second UFO shot down over Mayo, Yukon, Canada.
FAA shuts down airspace over Montana citing another possible UFO, but NORAD claims it was a “radar anomaly.”
Sunday, February 12: Third UFO is spotted and shot down over the Great Lakes
US warplanes shot down four high-altitude objects this month – the object shot down off the coast of South Carolina was known to be a balloon from China.
The other three — one off the coast of Alaska on Friday, one over Canada’s Yukon Territory on Saturday and one in Michigan on Sunday — have yet to be identified.
“I want to clarify that the three properties demolished this weekend are very different from what we talked about last week. We knew exactly what that was — a PRC surveillance balloon,” Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said Monday.
“We’ll confirm what they are once we’ve collected the debris,” he added.
The Pentagon memo sent to lawmakers on Capitol Hill said the object shot down over Alaska on Friday was “the size of a small car” and dissimilar to the Chinese balloon shot down off the coast of South Carolina was.
The Canadian case is being investigated by Canadian authorities – although the FBI is helping.
Further details were not available.
“We currently have no further details about the object, including the full scope of its capabilities, purpose, or origin,” the Pentagon memo said.
But, the nation’s military warned, don’t assume all recent events are connected.
“The events of the past few days should not be assumed to be related,” the Pentagon noted in the memo.
The recovery work is ongoing but will take some time due to the difficult conditions.
“The objects in Alaska and Canada are in fairly remote terrain — ice, wilderness, all that — which makes them difficult to find in winter weather. And the object over Lake Huron is now probably in very deep water,” White House spokesman John Kirby said Monday.
And he noted that bad weather off the South Carolina coast prevented further diving operations on Monday.
“Weather conditions off the coast are pretty tough at the moment,” he said.
This is the image of the 148th Fighter Wing F-16C that shot down the unidentified object over Lake Heron on Sunday
The administration has struggled to say they do not believe anyone’s life is in danger.
“I want to assure the Americans that these objects pose no military threat to anyone on the ground. However, they pose a risk to civil aviation and a potential threat to intelligence gathering. And we’re going to get to the bottom of that,” Secretary of Defense Austin said.
The administration argues that the objects posed a threat to civilian air travel, which is why they were removed.
“There was a very real potential risk to civil aviation,” Kirby said during Monday’s White House news briefing.
‘The one that got shot [Sunday] was about 20,000 feet. And the two shot down on Friday and Saturday were at about 40,000 feet. And as you know, transcontinental air travel is about 30,000 feet. Of course that depends on the weather. And since we found that they were unmanned and uncontrolled and therefore left to the atmospheric conditions, the actual risk to flight safety was an issue,” he noted.
Meanwhile, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre dismissed any claim that “alien activity” was behind the three UFO “takedowns” over Alaska, Canada and Michigan — raising the issue unsolicited at the beginning of a news conference Monday Language.
“There is no evidence of extraterrestrials or extraterrestrial activity in these recent shutdowns,” Jean-Pierre said.
She then joked about how she “loved” the ET movie.
“We wanted to make sure the American people knew that, you all knew that, and it was important for us to say that from here because we’ve heard a lot about it,” she said.
“I loved the movie ET but I’m just going to leave it at that,” she said to laughter from the press room.
During a news conference Sunday night — while many Americans were watching the Super Bowl, US Air Force General Glen VanHerck said intelligence agencies are exploring all possibilities — including the notion that the three latest objects could be linked to extraterrestrials.
“I’ll let the intelligence services and counterintelligence figure that out. I haven’t ruled anything out,” said VanHerck. “At this point, we continue to assess each unknown threat or potential threat approaching North America in an attempt to identify it.”
US Air Force Gen. Glen VanHerck (left) said they were still unsure how the three objects stayed aloft because they had currently unknown propulsion systems, while White House security spokesman Adm. John Kirby (right) said: “I don’t think the American people need to be worried about aliens in relation to these ships, period.
An F-16 fighter jet shot it down from about 20,000 feet over the Great Lakes at 2:42 p.m. – after two other vehicles were destroyed over Alaska and Canada on Friday and Saturday.
A Chinese balloon was shot down over South Carolina on February 4th, meaning the US Air Force shot down four objects in just eight days.
Lawmakers clamored for answers. And hearing from the President on the matter.
“In its 65-year history, NORAD Command has never shot down an aircraft over US airspace. In the 10 days they shot down 1 balloon and 3 ‘objects,'” tweeted Florida Republican Senator Marco Rubio. “Americans today need to hear this directly from their president.”
Republican Senator Tom Cotton of Arkansas pointed out that Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau made a public statement over the weekend.
“The President owes the American people a statement, face-to-face and on camera, of what we know about these ‘objects’ and the steps he is taking to protect America’s sovereign airspace,” Cotton said.
“No commander-in-chief should hide behind spokesmen and anonymous sources in times of crisis.”
The authorities do not rule out that there could be further sightings and shootings in the coming days.
Gen VanHerck said that since the Chinese balloon was found in late January, the US has adjusted its radar to track slower objects. He explained that this radar adjustment, along with the heightened state of alert following the Chinese balloon, explains the frequency of UFO sightings.
VanMerck said the Air Force is still unsure how the three objects stayed aloft as they have currently unknown propulsion systems. He added, “We call them objects, not balloons, for a reason.”
And some lawmakers warned against jumping to collusion, saying more objections would be found because people were looking for them now.
“My speculative guess as to why we’re seeing these things happening in quick succession is that we’re really primed to look for them now, aren’t we?” Connecticut Democratic Rep. Jim Himes said Sunday on NBC’s Meet the Press.
“The truth is that most of our sensors and most of what we were looking for didn’t look like balloons. Now, of course, we’re looking for her. So I think we’re probably going to find more stuff,” Himes noted.