- A US F-22 fighter jet shot down an “unidentified object” flying over northern Canada.
- Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said he ordered NORAD to shoot it down on Saturday.
- Prime Minister Trudeau said the Canadian military would retrieve the remains of the object for analysis.
On the orders of Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, a US fighter jet shot down an “unidentified object” flying over northern Canada on Saturday.
“I have ordered the shooting down of an unidentified object that violated Canadian airspace,” Trudeau said, adding that both Canadian and U.S. aircraft scrambled and a U.S. F-22 successfully shot down the object.
Prime Minister Trudeau said the object was shot down over Canadian territory, the Yukon, adding that the Canadian military would recover and analyze the remains of the object. He also said he spoke with President Joe Biden on Saturday afternoon.
— Justin Trudeau (@JustinTrudeau) February 11, 2023
The North American Aerospace Defense Force, operated by both the United States and Canada, confirmed earlier on saturday A “high-altitude aerial object” has been detected in Canadian airspace.
Saturday afternoon’s incident was the third time in just over a week that a US jet has shot down an object flying over the United States or Canada. On Friday, the US shot down another unidentified object flying about 40,000 feet over Alaska, and a week ago the US shot down a Chinese surveillance balloon off the coast of South Carolina.
A US official said the Chinese balloon was part of an operation to gather intelligence on the world’s militaries and was investigating “strategic bases” within the United States.
The Chinese government last week criticized the US for shooting down the balloon, saying it was “of a civilian nature and was used for flight testing”.