NORAD shoots down ‘unidentified object’ over Yukon, Trudeau says – National | Globalnews.ca

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says an “unidentified object” that violated Canadian airspace on Saturday has been shot down over Yukon.

The news comes after officials with the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) confirmed an exclusive Global News report Saturday that a “high-altitude airborne object” has been detected over northern Canada.

“I ordered the take down of an unidentified object that violated Canadian airspace. [NORAD] shot down the object over the Yukon. Canadian and U.S. aircraft were scrambled, and a U.S. F-22 successfully fired at the object,” Trudeau said in a series of tweets Saturday evening.

“I spoke with President Biden this afternoon. Canadian Forces will now recover and analyze the wreckage of the object. Thank you to NORAD for keeping the watch over North America.”

Defence Minister Anita Anand offered similar remarks in a tweet.

Global News reported Saturday, citing three security sources, that NORAD was monitoring one or two more objects that may be potential spy balloons.

Within minutes of publication, NORAD confirmed in a statement that they “have positively identified a high-altitude airborne object over Northern Canada.”

“While we cannot discuss specifics related to these activities at this time, please note that NORAD conducts sustained, dispersed operations in the defence of North America through one or all three NORAD regions,” said Maj. Olivier Gallant, a spokesperson for NORAD, in a statement to Global News.

Gallant added that military aircraft “are currently operating from Alaska and Canada in support of (NORAD) activities.”

The U.S. shot down a “high-altitude object” over Alaska, near Canada’s northern border, on Friday.

A spokesperson for the Pentagon said at the time the balloon was believed to be heading towards Canadian airspace.

The “high-altitude” object shot down on Friday had not entered Canadian airspace, Defence Minister Anita Anand said in a statement on Friday.

The incident came a week after a Chinese surveillance balloon that had flown into Canadian airspace and the northwestern U.S. for several days before being shot down over the Atlantic Ocean by the U.S Air Force.

It’s not known if the object being monitored on Saturday originated in China.

Asked why Canada didn’t intercept the first balloon when it passed through Canadian airspace, Anand told reporters that the government had monitored the craft and “determined that it posed no imminent risk to Canadians at all.”

“We were watching it very carefully to ensure we were doing what is necessary to protect Canadians, and we’re doing that in the context of the NORAD relationship, of course,” Anand said at a press conference with her U.S. counterpart, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, in Washington on Friday.

“When the United States made that decision to shoot it down, Secretary Austin did thank Canada because we were making these decisions jointly about imminent threats.”

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China says debris from balloon shot down over U.S. ‘belongs’ to them

American security and defence officials have accused China of using surveillance balloons to spy on countries over several years and across five continents, the Associated Press reported last week.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said his government has briefed dozens of countries about the Chinese balloon program. Beijing maintains the balloon shot down over the continental U.S. last week was civilian, conducting meteorological research — a claim the U.S. rejects.

The U.S. began collecting pieces of the downed Chinese spy balloon off the South Carolina coast on Tuesday and will examine the craft’s payload to better understand what it was surveilling. Parts of the craft have already begun arriving at the FBI’s Quantico, Virginia headquarters.

— With files from Global’s Aaron D’Andrea and the Associated Press

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