The United States Government ordered to shoot and shoot down an “object” that was flying over the state of Alaska, it reported this Friday at a press conference John Kirbyone of the White House spokesmen.
Kirby explained that, in the last 24 hours, the Pentagon detected a “high altitude object” over the state of Alaska and Biden gave the order for an associated fighter jet US Northern Command was fired upon and shot down.
The “object”, at first, seems to be different to the Chinese “spy balloon” that the United States shot down last Saturday after it flew over various areas of the country, the spokesman said.
Specifically, Kirby explained that the downed “object” was much smaller: it was the size of a “small vehicle”, while the proportions of the “spy balloon” were “two or three buses”.
In addition, the Chinese “spy balloon” had the ability to maneuver, but the “object” that was shot down today did not have that ability and was downwind, the spokesman explained.
When giving the order to shoot down the “object”, one of the factors that worried Biden was the altitude at which it was flying, of about 12 kilometers, and which placed it at a height where it could interfere with the trajectory of civil aircraftKirby detailed; while the Chinese “spy balloon” was flying at an altitude of about 20 kilometers.
The new “object” was shot down over frozen waters in the state of Alaska and now the fragments are being collected to determine exactly what it was, Kirby said.
The United States accuses the Chinese government of having developed, with the involvement of the Armed Forces, a “program” of balloons for espionage work and that have already flown over more than 40 countries on 5 continents.
China defends that the balloon that brought down the US on Saturday was a meteorological device that it “deviated from its original course” due to “force majeure”.
The discovery of these “spy balloons” has triggered a new diplomatic crisis between the United States and China and led to the suspension of a trip that the Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, had planned to make to the Asian country.