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The US military shot down an unidentified object in US airspace over Alaska on Friday afternoon, top officials said.
« I can confirm that the Department of Defense was tracking a high-altitude object over Alaska airspace in the last 24 hours. The object was flying at an altitude of 40,000 feet and posed a reasonable threat to the safety of civilian flight, » White House National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby told reporters at a briefing.
Kirby said that out of an abundance of caution and at the recommendation of the Pentagon, President Joe Biden ordered the military to down the object. On that order, an F-22 out of Joint Base Elmendorf–Richardson in Alaska and assigned to US Northern Command shot down the object with an AIM 9X missile off the northern coast of Alaska, near the Canadian border.
« We’re calling this an object, because that’s the best description we have right now, » Kirby said. « We do not know who owns it, whether it’s state owned or corporate owned or privately owned. We just don’t know. »
The object first came to the attention of US authorities Thursday evening, Kirby said. Fighter jets flew around the object before the order to shoot it down, Kirby said, and « the pilot’s assessment was that this was not manned.
