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US jet shoots down unknown object flying off Alaska coast [1]

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Date: 2023-02-10  

John Kirby, White House National Security Council spokesman

A U.S. military fighter jet shot down an unknown object flying off the coast of Alaska on Friday on orders from President Joe Biden, White House officials said.

The object was flying at about 40,000 feet and posed a “reasonable threat” to the safety of civilian flights, said John Kirby, White House National Security Council spokesman. He described the object as roughly the size of a small car and said it was shot down near the U.S.-Canada border.

It was the second time in a week U.S. officials had downed some type of flying object over the U.S. On Saturday fighter jets fired a missile into a suspected Chinese spy balloon off the coast of South Carolina.

There were few answers about the object, and the White House drew distinctions between the two episodes. Kirby said it wasn’t yet known who owned it, and he did not say it was a balloon. Officials also couldn’t say if there was any surveillance equipment on it. Kirby didn’t know yet where it came from or what its purpose was.

Still, it posed enough of a concern that U.S. officials felt it best to knock it out of the sky.

“We’re going to remain vigilant about our airspace,” Kirby said. “The president takes his obligations to protect our national security interests as paramount.”

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