The Pentagon did not comment on the situation. (file)
Ottawa/Washington:
Airspace over Lake Michigan has been temporarily restricted for national defense reasons, according to a notice from the US Federal Aviation Administration on Sunday.
The notice states that the airspace is being restricted for “national defense” reasons. There was no immediate comment from the Pentagon or FAA.
The airspace was closed after US aircraft shot down a Chinese spy balloon and two unidentified flying objects.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said on Sunday that Canadian investigators are hunting for the wreckage of a mysterious flying object shot down by a US fighter jet over the Yukon Territory, as the top US Senate lawmaker said it – and a The other flying object fell down off the coast. Alaska – Both seemed to balloon.
“Recovery teams are on the ground, looking to locate and analyze the object,” Trudeau told reporters. He gave no indication of what it was but said it “represents a justifiable threat to the safety of civil flight.”
“Safety of the citizens is our top priority and hence I have decided to shoot down the unidentified object,” he said.
US Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer provided little more detail to US broadcaster ABC, saying US national security officials believe the destroyed object in Canada – as well as the marine near Deadhorse, Alaska – was found on Friday. Another flying object on the ice – both were balloons.
“They believed they were (balloons), yes, but much smaller than the first one,” Schumer said, referring to the balloon shot down off the coast of South Carolina last Saturday — a large, white, flashy inflatable whose trip into US airspace earlier in the month sparked an international incident.
The White House said only that the recently dropped objects “did not resemble Chinese balloons”, calling Schumer’s description “very short”.
US officials have accused the Chinese of using a 200-foot-tall (60 m high) balloon for surveillance. The Chinese government has said it was a civilian research vessel that veered off course and condemned its destruction.
Since the destruction of the original balloon, US officials have been scouring the seas for debris and electronic equipment. Schumer said he was confident that US investigators would get to the bottom of what it was being used for.
“We’ll probably be able to put this whole, entire surveillance balloon together and know exactly what’s going on,” he said.
Meanwhile, North America is on high alert for air intruders.
On Saturday, the US military grounded fighter jets in Montana to investigate a radar anomaly, prompting a brief federal shutdown of the airspace. The North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) later stated that the pilots did not detect anything consistent with a radar hit.
Republican lawmaker Mike Turner, who serves on the US House Armed Services Committee, suggested that President Joe Biden’s administration could overcompensate for what he describes as its past lax oversight of US airspace.
“They appear to be somewhat trigger-happy,” Turner told CNN on Sunday.
“I would prefer them to be happy than to be permissive.”
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
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