Toronto: In the third such incident in recent days, an unidentified object was shot down by an American jet, this time over the Canadian territory of Yukon.
The aerial object was brought down by a F-22 fighter at approximately 3.41pm on Saturday. In a statement, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said, “I ordered the take down of an unidentified object that violated Canadian airspace. Norad shot down the object over the Yukon. Canadian and US aircraft were scrambled, and a US F-22 successfully fired at the object.”
Norad is the North American Aerospace Defense Command.
Four jets, two US F-22s and two Canadian C-18s were scrambled to track down the “high altitude airborne” object, with instructions for whichever had “the best shot” to bring it down, according to Canada’s Chief of Defence Staff General Wayne Eyre in a briefing on Saturday. While its origin has yet to be revealed, Canada’s Minister of National Defence Anita Anand said it was “potentially similar” to the Chinese surveillance balloon that was brought down on February 4 over the coastal waters off the American state of South Carolina.
A release from the Prime Minister’s Office on Saturday evening said Trudeau had spoken to US President Joe Biden “on the matter of an unidentified, unmanned object that violated Canadian airspace and was closely tracked and monitored” by Norad “over the last 24 hours”. They authorised the Norad operation.
Trudeau noted that the Canadian Armed Forces “will now recover and analyse the wreckage of the object to determine more details on its purpose and origin.”
Anand said the “small, cylindrical” object was flying at about 40,000 feet.
Ranj Pillai, Premier of the Yukon, said in a statement that he had been briefed about the operation and had spoken to Anand in that regard. “We recognise events like these can generate concern, but I want to assure Yukoners that at no time was the safety of Yukoners at risk,” he said.
Anand said during a media briefing that to their knowledge, “this is the first instance of Norad downing an object in Canadian airspace, and the importance of this moment should not be underestimated.”
“We detected this object together and we defeated this together,” she added.
On Friday, the US had brought down another object over the state of Alaska.
On February 4, it brought down the alleged Chinese spy balloon, which caused a rupture in ties with Beijing as secretary of state Anthony Blinken cancelled a scheduled visit to China. Beijing had descried it as a meteorological balloon that had gone astray and threatened retaliation for the American action.
