`Unidentified Objects` Being Shot Down Over North American Skies are Aliens? Senior US General Answers

A spate of unusual objects have appeared over North American skies in recent weeks.

New Delhi: As US military fighter jets brought down another flying object on Monday (February 13, 2023), the fourth such shootdown over North America in a little more than a week, a senior US General said that he would not rule out aliens or any other explanation yet.

Asked whether he had ruled out an extraterrestrial origin for three airborne objects shot down by US warplanes in as many days, General Glen VanHerck, who is overseeing North American airspace, said, "I'll let the intel community and the counterintelligence community figure that out. I haven't ruled out anything."

"At this point, we continue to assess every threat or potential threat, unknown, that approaches North America with an attempt to identify it," VanHerck, who is the head of the joint US-Canadian North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) and the US Air Force Northern Command, added.

He also told reporters that the military has not been able to identify what the three most recent objects are, how they stay aloft, or where they are coming from.

"We're calling them objects, not balloons, for a reason," VanHerck said.

His comments came during a Pentagon briefing after a US F-16 fighter jet shot down an octagonal-shaped object over Lake Huron on the US-Canada border, acting on orders from President Joe Biden.

US brings down another flying object, fourth within 10 days

Earlier in the day, Pentagon spokesperson Brigadier General Patrick Ryder said in an official statement that on Biden's order, a US F-16 fighter shot down an object at 2:42 p.m. (local time) over Lake Huron on the US-Canada border.

Though it "did not pose a military threat", the object could have potentially interfered with domestic air traffic as it was traveling at 20,000 feet and it might have had surveillance capabilities, Ryder said.

The object reportedly appeared to be octagonal in structure, with strings hanging off but no discernible payload.

The incident has once again raised questions about the spate of unusual objects that have appeared over North American skies in recent weeks and increased tensions with China.

The US had identified the first object as a Chinese surveillance balloon and shot it down off the coast of South Carolina on February 4. 

On Friday, a second object was shot down over sea ice near Deadhorse, Alaska, while a third object was destroyed over Canada's Yukon on Saturday.