The airspace above Lake Michigan in the northern United States, temporarily closed for reasons related to “national defense”, has reopened, the regulator of American civil aviation (FAA) announced on Sunday.
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“The FAA briefly closed a portion of the airspace over Lake Michigan to support Department of Defense operations. The airspace has been reopened,” the regulator said in a statement.
Contacted by AFP, the Pentagon had not yet reacted.
The news comes as three flying objects, including one described by Washington as a Chinese spy balloon, were shot down in a week over the United States and Canada.
On Saturday, airspace in the US state of Montana was temporarily closed, but a fighter jet dispatched to investigate a “radar anomaly” did not identify a flying “object” according to the military.
The United States believes that the first object officially detected was a balloon controlled by the Chinese military and was part of a fleet sent by Beijing over more than 40 countries on five continents, for espionage purposes.