the day before a US military jet shot down a suspected Chinese spy balloonThe Colombian military confirmed the sighting of an aerial object similar to a balloon over its territory.
Colombia’s air force said in a brief statement on Saturday that a possible balloon was detected in its air defense system on Friday morning.
US military officials said on Friday that a Chinese balloon had been spotted somewhere over Latin America, but did not specify its location.
The Colombian statement did not mention China or any other country as the origin of the balloons.
According to the Colombian statement, an “object” was detected in its territory at an altitude of 55,000 feet that entered the airspace of the South American country in the north at an average speed of 25 knots, or about 29 mph.
The statement added that the object exhibited “balloon-like characteristics” and that the air force monitored it until it left Colombian airspace.
“It was determined that this does not pose a threat to national security,” the statement said.
As of Sunday, no other official confirmation of the unidentified balloons flying over other Latin American countries has been issued.
However, in recent days, the balloons have been spotted in Venezuela and Costa Rica by several social media users.
According to the head of the civil aviation agency, Costa Rican authorities were informed of a balloon on Thursday and planes were notified.
“It was what everyone else saw, a white ball,” said Fernando Naranjo, Costa Rica’s director of civil aviation. No further action was taken.
The saga of the Chinese balloon shot down off the US Atlantic coast on Saturday has captured public attention for several days, and is widely seen as worsening US-China relations.
Chinese ally Venezuela condemned the US decision to shoot down the balloon in a statement on Sunday.