Biden Ordered Shootdown Of Unidentified Object Over Alaska Deemed "Threat To Civilian Aviation"

A US official has said Friday that the US military engaged and shot down an unidentified object flying over Alaska on Thursday night, upon the order given by President Biden.

It’s unconfirmed whether the unidentified object was a balloon, “but it was traveling at an altitude that made it a potential threat to civilian aircraft,” according to The New York Times, which first reported it Friday afternoon.

The president gave the shootdown order “out of an abundance of caution,” the unnamed US official said, coming on the heels of the dramatic Chinese “spy” balloon shootdown off the American east coast last Saturday.

The scant details given to the Times didn’t reveal any information that might point to the nature of the flying object, or if it was possibly a weather or spy balloon (China still insists last week’s balloon was purely for weather research purposes, and that it blew off course).

A separate official quoted in the new report commenting on the second object to breach US airspace in a week called it a “fast-moving” situation, and that it’s still developing – thus more details are expected to soon trickle out.

“It is not clear if the object was from an adversarial power, or a commercial or research operation that has gone astray, the official said,” NYT reports.

⚡️#BREAKING White House: Object smaller than recent balloon downed near Alaska a few moments ago

It’s suspected to be another Chinese Balloon

— War Monitor (@WarMonitors) February 10, 2023

Officials called the airspace breach relatively short, and could not readily identify what it was. It’s also unclear whether a recovery team is able to access the down object, or whether it took place over water or land.

In a briefing administration spokesman John Kirby said the Pentagon had been tracking the object before deeming it a “reasonable threat” to the safety of civilian aviation, as it was traveling at 40,000 feet:

Kirby: A "high altitude object" has been shot down over Alaska pic.twitter.com/Ps2W9nCBHz

— Greg Price (@greg_price11) February 10, 2023

Meanwhile, on Friday the US announced it will go after Chinese firms deemed connected with the manufacture of the alleged spy balloon shot down last weekend…