From Forbes: The mysterious flying object shot down by NORAD fighter jets in Canada on Feb. 11 likely belonged to a balloon hobby club in Illinois, according to a new report from Aviation Week. But agencies like NORAD and FBI won’t confirm to the balloon club whether it was one of their balloons that caused an international incident.
The Northern Illinois Bottlecap Balloon Brigade spoke with Aviation Week, which says the circumstantial evidence is strong that it was their balloon shot down by NORAD, a partnership between the U.S. and Canada to monitor the skies that’s perhaps most famous for tracking Santa Claus. The U.S. was on heightened alert at the time, after a Chinese spy balloon was spotted by civilians in Billings, Montana before it crossed the entire continental U.S. and was finally shot down over the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of South Carolina on Feb. 4.
Three more flying objects were shot down in northern Alaska, in Canada’s Yukon, and over Lake Huron near Michigan. And it’s the balloon in the Yukon territory that probably belonged to the Northern Illinois Bottlecap Balloon Brigade, given its last reported location.
View: Full Article
