North American Aerospace Defense Command(NORAD) spotted an unidentified balloon-shaped object in the US sky on Friday. The object drew attention as America is famous for UFO sightings and because of the recent incident in which a Chinese spy balloon traversed a significant portion of the US.
New York: An unidentified balloon-shaped object in the US sky baffled North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) officials on Friday. While America holds the title of a country where most UFO sightings occur, this object drew attention from officials due to last year’s incident in which fighter jets intercepted and destroyed a Chinese surveillance balloon that traversed a significant portion of the US.
NORAD promptly sent fighter pilots to probe the object, as reported by the Associated Press, citing NORAD spokesperson John Cornelio.
The authorities clarified that the balloon shaped object intercepted on Friday was Chinese spy balloon and does not present a danger to aviation or national security.
Trending Now
Still Remains A Suspense
NORAD is silent on the origin or purpose of the ‘balloon’ that was spotted hovering over Utah and Colorado.
White Chinese Spy Balloon
Earlier this year, American fighter jects destroyed a white Chinese surveillance balloon off the South Carolina coast. The Pentagon said that the balloon was a component of an extensive surveillance initiative that Beijing had been doing for “several years.”
China also responded to the incident stating that it reserved the right to “take further actions” and criticized Amerca “an obvious overreaction and a serious violation of international practice.”
Diplomatic Tussle between US and China
The presence of the Chinese balloon emerged as a major diplomatic issue between both the countries, leading Secretary of State Antony Blinken to cancel his scheduled visit to Beijing last year.
Blinken later resumed his trip in June in an attempt to end the rising tensions between US and China.
“NORAD is continuing to work in close coordination with the Federal Aviation Administration to track and monitor the balloon detected at an altitude of about 44,000 feet (13,400 meters),” Cornelio said.
Initial indications of the military tracking a balloon over the Western United States raised concerns among lawmakers. This included US Senator Jon Tester and US Representative Matt Rosendale from Montana, who mentioned that their offices were closely monitoring its trajectory, AP reported.
In June last year, several images of Chinese spy balloons were captured crossing East Asia, reported BBC under its analysis of data captured by satellites. The analysis was conducted by the BBC in collaboration with Synthetic, an artificial intelligence firm.
Más historias