(Washington) The United States, on the orders of Joe Biden, shot down a “high-flying object” over Alaska on Friday, a White House spokesman said on Friday, without giving details on its nature or origin.
This “object”, which he said was “the size of a small car” and flew at an altitude of about 12,000 meters, posed “a threat to the safety of air traffic”, said John Kirby, spokesman of the White House National Security Council.
“We don’t know who owns it, whether it’s a state or a company or an individual, we don’t know. […] And we do not currently understand its use, ”he said.
President Joe Biden gave the order to destroy it “this morning”, he said, and it was done by early afternoon.
He said the object was “much smaller” than the Chinese balloon that the United States destroyed last Saturday, which was also flying at a higher altitude.
The US administration became aware “last night” of the presence of this object whose debris fell on frozen waters in northern Alaska, near the Canadian border, John Kirby said. He said the United States would work to recover the debris.
” We do not know ”
The spokesperson specified, moreover, that unlike the Chinese balloon, this object did not seem to have a propulsion system or controls allowing it to move.
John Kirby finally indicated that an aerial reconnaissance mission carried out around the object before it was destroyed had established that there was no occupant inside.
Washington had shot down a balloon off its Atlantic coast on Saturday that had flown over sensitive military sites and had been described by Beijing as a “civilian aircraft used for research purposes, mainly meteorological”.
Footage captured by US military aircraft shows that the Chinese balloon that flew over the United States last week was well equipped with spy tools, not intended for weather.
This diplomatic clash had led the head of American diplomacy Antony Blinken to postpone a rare visit to China.
The American authorities are still busy collecting the debris from the balloon in the Atlantic, near the coast of South Carolina.