Following criticism for moving too slowly in taking down the Chinese spy balloon that floated over the U.S. this month, the Biden administration downed an unidentified cylindrical object over Alaskan airspace on Friday, and after discussion with Canada shot down a separate object violating Canadian airspace Saturday. That was not the case, however, for Chinas surveillance balloon that was shot down on February 4 off the coast of South Carolina. The Pentagon confirmed Sunday that an F-16 fighter jet shot down an airborne object over Lake Huron earlier in the day. -The FBI is taking the lead on recovery efforts and they are embedded with DoD to do so. While such objects at times have gone through U.S. airspace, the current scale is unprecedented, Turner said. On Friday, an unidentified object. WebJun 10, 2021. This is a common arrangement. Capt. -Each object of interest is taken on a case-by-case basis as far as to shoot them down or not. -They don't know exactly what these objects are, but they made enhancements to radars out of an abundance of caution and at the direction of President Biden. The third object was shot down on Feb. 11 over Yukon, Canada. Then, Jones lost sight of the other plane. Recently, the federal government decided to move the howitzers out of Maine, said Lamb. Well know more about what this was in the coming days, but for now, be assured that all parties have been laser-focused on it from the moment it traversed our waters, Slotkin said on Twitter. WebF-16 jet based in Madison crashes in Michigan's Upper Peninsula Channel 3000 / News 3 Now 42.1K subscribers 7.5K views 2 years ago An F-16 Fighting Falcon from the An unidentified object was shot down near Lake Huron Sunday, marking the third time in a week that US fighter jets have taken down objects in North American airspace. Stay with The War Zone for updates. On Mar. The plane was destroyed and its pilot killed when it crashed into the ground possibly because of an illusion known as the graveyard spiral.. I have not seen it mentioned anywhere that the mysterious Lake Huron balloon was passing very,very near the Selfridge Air Force base in the area just south of Port Huron, MI. But on Sunday, defense officials reacquired the radar contact and detected the object flying over Wisconsin and then Michigan. Eight of the jets suffered accidents in fiscal 2020, including four that were destroyed or severely damaged. -No other objects are being tracked now. Two U.S. House members from Michigan, Republican Rep. Jack Bergman and Democratic Rep. Elissa Slotkin, confirmed earlier on Sunday that pilots from the Air Force and National Guard had taken out the object above Lake Huron. And who knows? Were very small. -They are still searching for an object that was taken off Alaska's north coast. Loaded 0%. The pilot, Captain Harry 'Mike' Roberts, ejected safely, but was taken prisoner. Our team will now work to recover the object in an effort to learn more.". We monitored the track of interest as it passed over Lake Michigan. WebCNN A military plane assigned to the Wisconsin Air National Guard crashed in Michigans Upper Peninsula, and officials are searching for the lone pilot on board. Deputy Pentagon press secretary Sabrina Singh also noted the difference between the incidents. If they didnt filter out slow-moving objects, early warning air defense systems would pick up lots of noise, such as weather balloons and birds. About a year after the first exercise [], Pilot from 115th Fighter Wing who went down over Hiawatha National Forest has been identified. No US military or media reports mention suspicion of Chinese involvement. It was about to go over Lake Huron when it was The cause of the crash was not immediately known and the 115th Fighter Wing declined to comment on the ongoing investigation, which is expected to take up to a year. The Maine National Guard also dispelled the conspiracy. He has reported from the U.S., Europe, Australia and Syria, and flown several combat planes with different air forces. The airspace has been reopened.. All rights reserved. WebUPDATE (WKOW) -- The search for the pilot from the Madison-based F-16 Fighter that crashed in Michigan's Upper Peninsula continues Wednesday morning. These images come to us from our friend @Badger_wings, who you can follow on Instagram here. It would be practically impossible for 50,000 troops to be in the Robbinston Maine area without being observed by someone, he added. Clearing airspace, pilots check for mariners and aircraft in the vicinity, then the pilots used the best weapon they think will work. After a Temporary Flight Restriction was issued in the area and later lifted, NORAD said it had detected a radar anomaly and scrambled the fighters to the area, where no object was found. As the other pilot was responding, Joness jet drew farther away from his wingman. He President Joe Biden gave the order to take out the Jones did not try to eject from the jet, the report said. -Canadian CF-18s and a tanker were involved in today's investigation of the object over Lake Huron. After the generals remarks, a Defense official who requested anonymity to speak about a developing situation said that there is no indication of aliens or extraterrestrial activity with these recent takedowns.. AFP and its logo are registered trademarks. The Russians are Coming! but there is nothing funny about conspiratorial ravings from the Twitterverse that Chinese troops massed along the border with Maine were schwacked in an airstrike. We have taken extreme caution to ensure that we limit potential collateral damage, so today, we worked closely with the FAA to clear out the airspace. The subject matter depicted or included via links within the Fact Checking content is provided to the extent necessary for correct understanding of the verification of the information concerned. Today, a high-altitude object was detected in US airspace over Lake Huron," Anand said. VanHerck was also concerned for the safety of the pilots and anyone on the ground or on water. Multiple other factors contributed to his death, including low light at night, weather conditions and the jets position and speed in the air. We did not assess it to be a kinetic military threat to anything on the ground, but assess it was a safety flight hazard and a threat due to its potential surveillance capabilities. The recent objects shot down in North American airspace since Friday were taken down out of an abundance of caution,Melissa Dalton, the assistant secretary of Defense for homeland defense and hemispheric affairs,told reporters Sunday. I appreciate the decisive action by our fighter pilots. Still, some on Twitter suggested Monday reaching out to people in Jackman, Maine, a town about 16 miles from the Canadian border, to see what they know. An unidentified object was shot down over northern Canada on Saturday, and on Friday, an unidentified object was shot down in Alaska airspace by a US F-22. A more recent example, Lapan said, is how retired Air Force Lt. Gen. Thomas McInerney spouted off about how U.S. spec ops troops were killed in a gun battle with the CIA in Germany over computer equipment associated with election fraud. However, the search continued, UPDATE: All indications suggest NORAD is still hunting *something* near the U.S./Canadian border in the Lake MichiganHuron area. A Warrior for GOD and Christ, #VETERAN, #WWG1WGAWORLDWIDE, #MAGA, #TRUMP2020, #Conservative has nearly 50,000 followers, with more than a mere few believing this post. Banana Joe Clemente, the Salt Spring resident confirmed via Facebook that he filmed the scene on March 17, 2018 and posted it on YouTube more than two years ago. According to the WSJ, who cited a Congressional aide, this time it was an F-16 to shoot down the object, that appeared to be shaped like an octagon and was flying at 20,000 feet, posing a threat to commercial aircraft flying in the area. North American Aerospace Defense Command detected the object Sunday morning and has maintained visual and radar tracking of it. Canadian Defense Minister Anita Anand said Sunday her country supported the shooting down of an object over US airspace by US fighter jets near Lake Huron. We cannot say they shot down the object for certain, but they were involved with the event at the very least. Photograph: Jack Guez/AFP/Getty Images When we can recover the debris, we will have more for you.. They could be out there, but they need to look back at old data to see if they were missing these recently. Chinese People's Liberation Army personnel participate in a military parade at Tiananmen Square in Beijing on October 1, 2019, to mark the 70th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China (AFP / Greg Baker), Screenshot of an article from Before Its News, taken on December 16, 2020, Screenshot of a Facebook post taken on December 16, 2020, Screenshot of a YouTube video taken on December 16, 2020. (Cristina J. The low altitude, daytime intercept would have allowed them to collect high-quality IR/EO video of the entirety of the object before shooting it down. (QAnon has, in recent years, become an increasingly dangerous conspiracy theory claiming, among other outlandish things, that President Donald Trump is fighting a horde of deep state pedophiles.). But much smaller than the first one.. ", Ive been in contact with DOD regarding operations across the Great Lakes region today, Bergman said on Twitter Sunday afternoon. He is a former 2nd Lt. of the Italian Air Force, a private pilot and a graduate in Computer Engineering. WebThe first one was the famous Chinese high altitude balloon shot down on February 4, 2023, at 2:39 p.m. by an F-22 Raptor, belonging to the 1st Fighter Wing from Langley Air Force This was paired with a heightened alert to look for these types of targets. The dam may have finally broke. -Radars filter out information based on clutter, such as low-speed clutter. The 148th FW is based out of Duluth, Minnesota, but is providing quick reaction alert duty for NORAD missions while the local 115th FW transitions to F-35s. One F-16 knocked it down with a Sidewinder missile over Lake Huron, where it likely fell into Canadian waters, VanHerck said. This is likely the aircraft that got the kill. At the time, those planes did not identify any object to correlate to the radar hits, which led NORAD and NORTHCOM to believe it was an anomaly. It said: Canada and China signed a treaty that allows the Peoples Liberation Army of China to station Chinese troops in Canada, beginning in 2020., Daniel Le Bouthillier, a spokesman for Canadas Department of National Defense, said by email, Not much to say except that it isnt true.. The first one was the famous Chinese high altitude balloon shot down on February 4, 2023, at 2:39 p.m. by an F-22 Raptor, belonging to the 1st Fighter Wing from Langley Air Force Base, shot down with an AIM-9X infrared-guided air-to-air missile off the coast of South Carolina and within U.S. territorial airspace. Military officials believe the object shot down over Lake Huron on Sunday is likely the same object that was spotted over Montana on Saturday, Gen. Glen VanHerck, the commander of the US Northern Command and the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD), said on Sunday. The temporary flight restrictions have since been lifted.. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, speaking after receiving a briefing from national security adviser Jake Sullivan on the objects from Friday and Saturday, said on Sunday that U.S. national security officials believed them to be balloons. Contents of this blog/website may not be used without author's prior written permission. Although military officials did not assess it to be a threat to anything on the ground, the objects path and altitude raised concerns, including that it could pose a risk to civil aviation, the officials said. In terms of the Chinese balloon, said Melissa Dalton, assistant secretary of Defense for homeland defense and hemispheric affairs, we had a basis and intelligence to know definitively that its point of origin was the Peoples Republic of China. No such certainty exists with the subsequent three objects. It is challenging to gain descriptions of them due to the speed of the fighters [strange statement as the fighters carry advanced targeting pods]. Those are the abbreviated notes, please take them as such. After the initial episode, NORAD shifted its approach to monitoring the airspace over North America, Dalton added. Please enable JavaScript for a better experience. Rachel Cohen joined Air Force Times as senior reporter in March 2021. The Maine Military Authority, said Lamb, had been refurbishing the howitzers, but those operations ended two years ago. The condition of the pilot has not been reported. When we can recover the debris, we will have more for you, she said Sunday. Are they Russians? The object was shaped like an octagon with strings hanging off it and did not appear to be carrying anything. Col. Bart Van Roo, the 115th Fighter Wing commander, declared Jones dead at the scene. Additionally, we are doing everything possible to assist and support the ongoing investigation.. The F-16C Fighting Falcon pilot who died in a crash in Michigans Upper Peninsula last December was disoriented and distracted before his plane pitched into the woods, safety investigators said in a new report out Wednesday. The US military does not have new information on the country of origin or the physical or mechanical properties of the three objects downed over North America in the past three days, Gen. Glen VanHerck, the commander of the US Northern Command and North American Aerospace Defense Command, told reporters Sunday. Some of this may be generated by our adversaries.. We reached out to NORAD for more details and will update this story with any information they provide. The balloon incident led to the United States calling off a planned visit to Beijing by Secretary of State Antony Blinken. There are no indications of any civilians hurt or otherwise affected. People in the public have the perception that the military is doing things that it is not actually doing.. STEUBEN, Mich. (AP) A Wisconsin-based fighter jet crashed in a national forest in Michigans Upper Peninsula while on a training mission and searchers A Canadian Army delegation visited China in January 2018, while a PLA delegation visited Canada in February of that same year, Le Bouthillier said. On Sunday, the Federal Aviation Administration briefly restricted some airspace over Lake Michigan near Wisconsinfor national defense airspace. The FAA made similar flight restrictions ahead of the operations to shoot down the spy balloon and the unidentified object over Alaska. The US military has not recovered the object shot down over Alaska on Friday, Gen. Glen VanHerck, the commander of the US Northern Command and North American Aerospace Defense Command, told reporters Sunday. Follow more news here. (FlightRadar24 image), was shot down off the coast of South Carolina. He is the Founder and Editor of The Aviationist, one of the worlds most famous and read military aviation blogs. An unidentified objectwas shot down over northern Canadaon Saturday. They cannot attribute some of them over the years. Two radio monitors have informed us that a pair of 148th Fighter Wing "Bulldogs" F-16C/Ds launched out of Madison, Wisconsin, at around 10:30 A.M. under the AESIR callsign on an alert scramble that turned into a live intercept. Gen. Glen VanHerck, commander of the North American Aerospace Defense Command and U.S. Northern Command, said he was certain that the initial episode, the downing of a Chinese surveillance balloon off the U.S. East Coast on Feb. 4, was clearly a balloon. These most recent objects do not pose a kinetic military threat, but their path in proximity to sensitive DoD sites and the altitude that they were flying could be a hazard to civilian aviation and thus raised concerns.. The American people deserve far more answers than we have.. Others posts shared a satellite image of the forested area where the earthquake hit, claiming that it appeared to have been cleared.