The U.S. military has shot down a new ‘object’ high above Lake Huron, two lawmakers announced on Sunday, the latest in mysterious flying objects that have placed authorities in the United States and Canada under threat. alert.
It is the third “object” to be shot down in three days by the Americans in their country and in Canada, and the fourth in less than ten days, counting the Chinese balloon described by Washington as a spy device and which was targeted by a missile on February 4 after flying over part of the United States.
The new object “was shot down by US Air Force and National Guard pilots,” Michigan Democrat Elissa Slotkin tweeted, while fellow Republican Jack Bergman spoke of an “object […] decommissioned above Lake Huron”, located in the north of the country.
Contacted by Agence France-Presse, the Pentagon had not yet reacted.
“The American people deserve a lot more answers than what we have,” added Jack Bergman on Twitter, reflecting the growing questions in the country and the political class about these events.
The United States believes that the first object officially detected, a balloon, was controlled by the Chinese military and was part of a fleet sent by Beijing over more than 40 countries on five continents, for the purpose of espionage .
The Chinese government assures that it was a civilian aircraft used for research purposes, mainly meteorological.
Two other flying objects were then shot down by American forces, one Friday over Alaska, the other Saturday in Canada.
In the evening, the Canadian Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau, must go to the province of Yukon, to the places where the last was shot.
Restrictions
In a sign that authorities are on the alert, airspace over part of Lake Michigan in the northern United States was temporarily closed on Sunday for “national defense” reasons, according to the US civil aviation regulator (FAA).
“These restrictions were put in place to ensure the safety of air traffic in the area during NORAD operations,” the North American Aerospace Defense Command said in a NORAD statement.
The day before, a similar measure had been taken in Montana. A fighter plane, dispatched to investigate a “radar anomaly”, had not identified a “flying object” according to the army.
On Sunday, however, Montana elected official Matt Rosendale said he was in “constant contact” with the military, and “they just told me that they are sure there is an object and that it was not not an anomaly,” he tweeted in the afternoon.
“Belligerence”
Washington and Ottawa were still busy collecting the remains of the devices on Sunday.
These events have added to the tension between China and the United States, and a visit to Beijing by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has been postponed.
Republican elected official Michael McCaul, chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the lower house of the US Congress, accused China on Sunday of an “act of belligerence” in connection with the balloon shot down on February 4 by the American army.
The sending of this object “was done provocatively to gather intelligence and collect elements on our three major nuclear sites,” he said on CBS.
Republicans have strongly criticized Democratic President Joe Biden for letting the balloon hover over the country for days before shooting it down.
The Pentagon explains that it “monitored and evaluated continuously”, which allowed it to learn “more about the capabilities and techniques” of China’s espionage.
Senate Democrat Leader Chuck Schumer defended Biden’s handling of the case, telling the ABC on Sunday that an analysis of the debris would be “a big blow to the United States.”
The president, however, faces calls for more transparency from both parties.
“I have real concerns about why the administration isn’t communicating more,” Democrat Jim Himes, a member of the House Intelligence Committee, told NBC.