over Alaska, White House says

The White House announced Friday that  President Biden ordered the military to down what it described as a “high-altitude object” hovering over Alaska earlier in the day.

“The Department of Defense was tracking a high-altitude object over Alaska airspace in the last 24 hours,” National Security Council coordinator for strategic communications John Kirby told reporters when asked about rumors of another suspected Chinese surveillance balloon.

The high-altitude object, Kirby said, was flying at an altitude of 40,000 feet and “posed a reasonable threat to the safety of civilian flight.”

“Out of an abundance of caution and at the recommendation of the Pentagon, President Biden ordered the military to down the object, and they did.

And it came inside our territorial waters – and those waters right now are frozen – but inside territorial airspace and over territorial waters. Fighter aircraft assigned to US Northern Command took down the object within last hour.

”It’s the second time in a little less than a week that US fighter jets have shot down an object flying over American airspace.

The Biden administration has faced questions over its handling of a suspected Chinese spy balloon that floated across the nation last week before being shot down in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of the Carolinas on Saturday/

The object was “much, much smaller” than the Chinese suspected spy balloon, Kirby said, comparing it to “roughly the size of a small car.” The balloon downed last Saturday was described by US officials as approximately the size of three buses.Biden “absolutely was involved in this decision” and ordered it at the recommendation of Pentagon leaders, Kirby said.

Last edited by Spunky (2/10/2023 3:26 pm)