“I ordered the shooting down of an unidentified object violating Canadian airspace,” Trudeau tweeted.
Ottawa, Canada:
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Saturday that an “unidentified object” was shot down over northwestern Canada, a day after U.S. officials said they shot down a similar object over Alaska.
“Canadian and U.S. aircraft scrambled and a U.S. F-22 successfully fired at the object,” Trudeau tweeted.
A week ago, U.S. forces shot down a balloon it said was a Chinese spy, sparking a diplomatic rift with Beijing and raising alarms over a series of incursions into the continent’s airspace.
Trudeau said the Canadian Forces Forces in Yukon “will now recover and analyze the remains of the object.”
He said he spoke with U.S. President Joe Biden about the latest incursion.
“Canadian and U.S. aircraft scrambled and a U.S. F-22 successfully fired at the object,” Trudeau tweeted.
I ordered the shooting down of an unknown object violating Canadian airspace. @NORADCommand Objects shot down over the Yukon River. Canadian and US aircraft scrambled and a US F-22 successfully opened fire on the object.
— Justin Trudeau (@JustinTrudeau) February 11, 2023
The object was shot down in the Yukon Territory, which borders Alaska, on Saturday, and U.S. fighter jets shot down another object on Friday off the state’s northern coast.
Search and recovery operations for the wreckage of the object continued Saturday but were hampered by “cold winds, snowfall and limited daylight” in the Arctic, U.S. Northern Command said in a statement.
“Recovery activities are ongoing on sea ice,” it said, adding that the Pentagon could provide “no further details … about the object, including its capabilities, purpose or origin.”
Saturday’s detection and shooting down of an airborne object marked the third time an airship has entered North America in the past three weeks.
Last month, a giant balloon carrying electronic equipment – the Pentagon called it a spy ship – flew over Canada and the United States, sparking a diplomatic row with China, which recognized ownership of the aircraft.
The gigantic balloon entered U.S. airspace in Alaska on Jan. 28, passing through Canada and much of the U.S. before being shot down over the Atlantic near South Carolina on Feb. 4.
(Aside from the title, this story is unedited by NDTV staff and published via a syndicated feed.)
