Pentagon confirms "high-altitude airborne object" shot down in US airspace over Alaska | FULL

United States Air Force Brigadier Gen. Pat Ryder confirmed on Friday that U.S. President Joe Biden ordered fighter aircraft assigned to United States Northern Command (NORCOM) to engage and destroy a "high-altitude airborne object" in United States airspace over Alaska on Friday afternoon.

Ryder said North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) detected the object on ground radar on Feb. 9. They then identified the object using fighter aircraft. Flying at 40,000 feet, it represented a risk to civilian passenger flights, according to United States Department of Defense (DoD) officials.

U.S. President Joe Biden gave the order to shoot down the object “out of an abundance of caution” according to the White House.

An F-22 tactical fighter aircraft out of Joint Base Elmendorf–Richardson in Alaska shot down the "object" with an AIM 9X missile, the Pentagon confirmed.

The incident came a week after U.S. and Canadian officials first confirmed a Chinese surveillance balloon had flown over Canada and across the continental U.S. over the course of several days. The balloon was ultimately shot down over the Atlantic Ocean on Saturday.

For more info, please go to https://globalnews.ca/news/9478154/china-spy-balloon-shot-down-canada-anand/

Subscribe to Global News Channel HERE: http://bit.ly/20fcXDc
Like Global News on Facebook HERE: http://bit.ly/255GMJQ
Follow Global News on Twitter HERE: http://bit.ly/1Toz8mt
Follow Global News on Instagram HERE: https://bit.ly/2QZaZIB
#GlobalNews