One of the objects that President Joe Biden authorized fighter jets to shoot down last week appears to have been nothing more than a hobby club balloon.
While the government has not confirmed what planes were shot down over the Yukon in northern Canada, the Northern Illinois Bottlecap Balloon Brigade has reported that one of its balloons is “missing in action.” Last Saturday morning, the balloon was last seen off the coast of Alaska.
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The trajectory of the balloon’s flight corresponds to the object shot down by a US Air Force F-22 on Saturday using an AIM-9X Sidewinder missile. Each missile costs well over $400,000.
However, the circumstantial evidence is intriguing. The club’s silver-coated, party-style “pico balloon” reported its last position on Feb. 10 at 38,910 ft. off the west coast of Alaska, and a popular forecasting tool—HYSPLIT NOAA’s model—projected the cylindrically shaped object would be floating high over the central part of the Yukon Territory on Feb. 11.
Indeed, “descriptions of all three unidentified objects shot down Feb. 10-12 match the shapes, altitudes, and payloads of the small pico balloons,” according to Aviation Week.
According to President Joe Biden, intelligence officials believe the unidentified flying objects were balloons.
“The current intelligence community assessment is that these three objects were most likely balloons associated with private companies, recreation, or research institutions studying weather or conducting other scientific research,” Biden said on Thursday.
Meanwhile, the North American Aerospace Defense Command announced that the FBI has spoken with the Illinois hobbyist club whose balloon was most likely targeted.
