The object shot down Sunday by US fighter jets was flying at 20,000 feet over Michigan’s Upper Peninsula and about to go over Lake Huron when it was neutralized, a senior administration official said.

The object was shaped like an octagon with strings hanging off it and no discernible payload, according to the official and another source briefed on the matter. Although the United States has no indication that the object has surveillance capabilities, that has not been ruled out as yet. 

The object was first detected by the North American Aerospace Defense Command and the US Northern Command over Montana on Saturday night, and fighter aircraft were sent to investigate, the senior administration official said.

At the time, those planes did not identify any object to correlate to the radar hits, which led NORAD and NORTHCOM to believe it was an anomaly.

But on Sunday, defense officials reacquired the radar contact and detected the object flying over Wisconsin and then Michigan. The path of the object and its altitude raised concerns that it could pose a threat to civilian aircraft, but it did not pose a military threat to anyone on the ground, the official said.

President Biden ordered the object to be shot down. It was initially reported that the object was shot down over Lake Huron based on what sources said and a public tweet by Rep. Jack Bergman.

Last edited by Spunky (2/12/2023 5:47 pm)