The United States military shot down an unidentified flying object over Lake Huron Sunday afternoon, just over a day after an Air Force fighter shot down an object over Alaska on Friday evening, and about a week after a Chinese balloon was shot down after traversing across U.S. airspace. Meanwhile, the Uruguayan Air Force said it was investigating “lights in the sky” in the northwestern part of the country, and Chinese state media reported that there was an “unidentified flying object in waters near the coastal city of Rizhao in the province and were preparing to shoot it down.”
While no single part of this is that unusual, the flurry of military action and sightings in a single weekend has lit social media aflame. The military has not said what the two objects shot down this weekend are, but the actions follow the much-hyped downing of a Chinese spy balloon last week. UFO mania, it seems, is here. The U.S. military, it should be noted, has been using the threat of UFOs to ask for more funding for years.
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Michigan congressman Jack Bergman tweeted Sunday that the U.S. military “has decommissioned another ‘object’ over Lake Huron … the American people deserve far more answers than we have.”
Earlier Sunday, the Federal Aviation Administration put up a temporary Notice to Air Missions (NOTAM) closing the airspace above Lake Michigan. Nav Canada, a nonprofit group that operates Canada’s civil airspace and air traffic control, put up a similar notice over a portion of Ontario near Lake Huron “due to an act [of] air defense.”
Several lawmakers said that they were seeking more information about the object: “I’ve been in touch with the Pentagon, DHS, and FAA regarding the closure of air space over the Great Lakes. I’m glad the object was neutralized over Lake Huron and I’ll continue pressing DoD for transparency,” Michigan Sen. Gary Peters tweeted.
Earlier in the day, amateur flight watchers tracked a US Air Force Boeing E-3B Sentry flying over Lake Michigan, which is, perhaps coincidentally, the same aircraft that was blown out of the sky by the mothership in the movie Independence Day.
Friday night, the Department of Defense announced that Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and U.S. President Joe Biden spoke on the phone and agreed to “work with Canada to take down a high-altitude airborne object over northern Canada.”
“Two F-22 aircraft from Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, Alaska monitored the object over U.S. airspace with the assistance of Alaska Air National Guard refueling aircraft, tracking it closely and taking time to characterize the nature of the object,” the statement continued. “Monitoring continued today as the object crossed into Canadian airspace, with Canadian CF-18 and CP-140 aircraft joining the formation to further assess the object. A U.S. F-22 shot down the object in Canadian territory using an AIM 9X missile following close coordination between U.S. and Canadian authorities.”
In a tweet, Trudeau said he “ordered” the takedown. “Canadian Forces will now recover and analyze the wreckage of the object,” Trudeau added. “Thank you to NORAD for keeping the watch over North America.”
Officials have not released any more information about either of the two UFOs they have shot down this weekend. Last week, an Air Force fighter destroyed a Chinese balloon off the coast of South Carolina that was initially spotted above Montana and floated across the United States.
Meanwhile, the Uruguayan Air Force said Friday it is investigating “flashing lights in the sky” above Termas de Almiròn in the western part of the country and said it has deployed a part of the government responsible for investigating UFOs to “gather information and interview witnesses.” Chinese state media put out a warning Sunday stating “local maritime authorities in East China’s Shandong Province announced on Sunday that they had spotted an unidentified flying object in waters near the coastal city of Rizhao in the province and were preparing to shoot it down.”
“Reminding fishermen to be safe,” they added.
The U.S. Department of Defense did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
