US shot down ‘object’ flying over Alaska

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A U.S. fighter jet shot down a high-flying object over Alaska on Friday on the orders of President Joe Biden, the White House said on Friday less than a week after the destruction of a Chinese spy balloon by US forces.

The craft, which was the size of a small car, was flying at an altitude of about 40,000 feet (12,190 meters) and posed a “reasonable threat to air traffic safety,” the White House said.

“We don’t know who owns this object,” National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told reporters.

U.S. authorities will know more soon, as the wreckage of the object ran aground in U.S. territorial waters, which are frozen in that region at this time of year, he added.

The craft, which John Kirby was careful not to call a “balloon”, was shot down by a US Northern Command fighter over extreme northeast Alaska, near the Canadian border.

There is no indication that the object, spotted Thursday evening, posed a military threat to people on the ground or whether it was equipped with surveillance devices, an official in Joe Biden’s administration said.

On February 4, the United States shot down a high-flying Chinese spy balloon using a missile, the debris of which is currently being recovered by the Americans.

The incident sparked a diplomatic crisis between Washington and Beijing, with the United States postponing a visit by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken to the Chinese capital and China denouncing an overreaction to what it presents as a balloon. meteorological observation.

(Report Andrea Shalal and Steve Holland, French version Jean-Stéphane Brosse)