On Friday, a U.S. F–22 fighter jet shot down an unknown airborne object in the skies above Alaska, according to U.S. officials.
U.S. Brig. Gen. Patrick Ryder, the Pentagon‘s chief spokesperson, reported that a Sidewinder missile had struck down a craft of approximately the size of a small car.
This incident happened less than a week after American forces brought down a Chinese balloon that had flown across the country.
On February 4, a U.S. F–22 fighter jet shot down what the American government deemed a Chinese surveillance balloon that had been travelling for a week through the US and some parts of Canada, near the coast of South Carolina.
The Chinese authorities, however, have maintained that it was a civilian research vessel.
Several legislators voiced disapproval of the president‘s decision to not intercept the Chinese balloon immediately, even though the military advised against it due to the potential harm from the pieces that might drop from the sky.
On Thursday, the Pentagon discovered an unidentified flying object using ground radars. Subsequently, F–35 aircraft were dispatched to look into the matter.
The UFO was soaring at an altitude of 40,000 feet (12,190 meters) in a northeasterly direction, which could have posed a potential threat to civilian aviation.
Officials stated that retrieving fragments of the object that was shot down off the coast of northeastern Alaska, close to the Canadian border, would be much easier than recovering parts of the Chinese balloon that was downed, as the former had fallen onto the frozen U.S. territorial waters and the latter had sunk into the ocean.