Saturday, February 11, 2023 | 10:00 a.m.
John Kirby, spokesman for the US National Security Council, confirmed this Friday that President Joe Biden ordered the shooting down of a “high-altitude object” that was flying over Alaska.
A US fighter plane shot down the unidentified object over Alaska, the White House said, although it was not clear what the purpose or origin of the target was.
“The president ordered the military to shoot down the object,” Kirby told a news conference. The incident occurred in the last hour, he said, at approximately 19:30 GMT.
Kirby also noted that the “object” was the size of a “small car” and it is unknown if it belonged to a nation, including China. “We don’t know who it belongs to, if it’s a state or a company,” he said.
However, in principle, the object was different from the Chinese “spy balloon” that the United States shot down on Saturday after it flew over various parts of the country, the spokesman said. Authorities are still recovering the remains of that balloon, shot down off the coast of South Carolina.
The object shot down this Friday, which fell in US waters off the north coast of Alaska near the Canadian border, was flying at an altitude of about 40,000 feet and posed a “reasonable threat” to the safety of civilian flights, Kirby explained.
“We hope to be able to recover the remains, since they not only fell in our territorial space, but also in what we believe to be frozen water, for which a recovery effort will be made,” added the White House spokesperson.
In addition, he noted that the US military sent a plane to observe the object before it was shot down and “the pilot’s assessment was that it was unmanned.”
This event comes nearly a week after the United States shot down the suspected Chinese spy balloon off the coast of South Carolina after it passed through sensitive North American military locations. China insisted the flyby was an accident involving a civilian aircraft and threatened repercussions.
Biden gave the order, but wanted to bring down the balloon even sooner. He was advised that the best time for the operation would be when he was above the water. Military officials determined that shooting it down on the ground from an altitude of 60,000 feet (18,000 meters) would pose an excessive risk to people on the ground.
China responded that it reserved the right to “take further action” and criticized the United States for “an obvious overreaction and a serious violation of international practice.”
