It was Justin Trudeau himself who announced on Twitter that he had commissioned the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD), a joint entity of Canada and the US.
Earlier, NORAD said it detected an object flying at a high altitude over Canada, but did not provide any further information. Spokesman Olivier Gallant said both Canadian and American fighter jets were deployed as part of NORAD.
On Twitter, Trudeau announced: “I ordered the shooting down of an unidentified object violating Canadian airspace. NORAD shot down the object over the Yukon. Canadian and US aircraft were deployed and a US F-22 successfully fired off the object.”
In a second tweet, Trudeau said he had spoken with President Joe Biden and that “Canadian Forces will now recover and analyze the wreckage of the object,” and thanked NORAD for “remaining vigilant in North America.”
Canada had announced that it would close part of its airspace due to the presence of the object. Some Canadian media citing unidentified sources spoke of the possible presence of a second object, which has not been confirmed.
The object was the third known object to violate US airspace in the past two weeks. A Chinese balloon, believed to be an intelligence-gathering balloon, flew through Canadian and US airspace for nearly a week before being shot down by US fighter jets off the coast of South Carolina last Sunday.
An object “the size of a small car” was shot down over Alaskan waters on Friday, according to the Pentagon. On this object, NORAD said recovery operations continued in northeastern Alaska, close to the Canadian border.
“The U.S. Northern Command Alaska and the Alaska National Guard, in close coordination with the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and local law enforcement, are conducting search and recovery activities,” it said in a statement.
However, adverse weather conditions and limited daylight complicate the operation, the air command added. “At this time, we have no further details about the object, including its capabilities, purpose or origin.”
Source: DN
