US shoots down UFO over Canada

“I ordered the take down of an unidentified object that violated Canadian airspace,”

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau tweet

(CMR) An American fighter jet, acting on the orders of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of Canada, shot down another unidentified flying object (UFO) on Saturday. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau confirmed in a series of tweets that an “unidentified object” that violated Canadian airspace on Saturday has been shot down over Yukon. It is said to have been the size of a small car.

The joint operation was followed by a statement from both American and Canadian officials with the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) confirming a report Saturday that a “high-altitude airborne object” has been detected over northern Canada. NORAD is operated jointly by the two countries.

I ordered the take down of an unidentified object that violated Canadian airspace. @NORADCommand shot down the object over the Yukon. Canadian and U.S. aircraft were scrambled, and a U.S. F-22 successfully fired at the object.

— Justin Trudeau (@JustinTrudeau) February 11, 2023

A spokesperson for the Pentagon stated that the balloon was believed to be heading toward Canadian airspace.

“I spoke with President Biden this afternoon. Canadian Forces will now recover and analyze the wreckage of the object. Thank you to NORAD for keeping the watch over North America.”

This incident follows another “high-altitude object” over Alaska and near Canada's northern border that was shot down on Friday. Defence Minister Anita Anand confirmed in a statement on Friday that one had not yet entered Canadian airspace. It also comes a week after a Chinese surveillance balloon that had flown into Canadian airspace and the northwestern U.S. for several days before being shot down over the Atlantic Ocean by the U.S Air Force.

Pentagon officials have said that the spy balloon shot down a week ago posed no military threat. Based on that assessment, and out of concern for civilians on the ground who might be harmed by the debris, they counseled against shooting it down over land after it entered American airspace on Jan. 31 over Idaho. The balloon was allowed to make its way to the Atlantic Ocean, where it was brought down off South Carolina. That gave the U.S. military time to study it, including having U-2 spy planes take high-resolution images of the equipment, the officials said.

Asked why Canada didn’t intercept the first balloon when it passed through Canadian airspace, Anand told reporters that the government had monitored the craft and “determined that it posed no imminent risk to Canadians at all.”

American security and defense officials have accused China of using surveillance balloons to spy on countries over several years and across five continents, the Associated Press reported last week. Beijing claims the balloon shot down over the continental U.S. last week was civilian, conducting meteorological research — a claim the U.S. rejects.

The U.S. began collecting pieces of the downed Chinese spy balloon off the South Carolina coast on Tuesday and will examine the craft’s payload to better understand what it was surveilling. Parts of the craft have already begun arriving at the FBI’s Quantico, Virginia headquarters.

“Canadian Forces will now recover and analyze the wreckage of the object,” he said in his Twitter post, adding, “Thank you to NORAD for keeping the watch over North America.”