Radar anomaly prompts U.S. FAA to briefly close some Montana airspace near Canadian border
CTV
The U.S. military said late on Saturday a radar anomaly prompted the temporary closure of airspace to civilian airplanes in Montana but no threatening object was detected.
The U.S. military said late on Saturday a radar anomaly prompted the temporary closure of airspace to civilian airplanes in Montana but no threatening object was detected.
The North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) sent fighter aircraft to investigate but the aircraft "did not identify any object to correlate to the radar hits. NORAD will continue to monitor the situation."
Earlier on Saturday, a U.S. F-22 fighter jet shot down an unidentified cylindrical object over Canada, the second such shootdown in as many days. Canada and the United States have been on heightened alert following an episode earlier this month where a Chinese high-altitude balloon the U.S. said was spying was tracked from Montana to South Carolina and then shot down off the coast.
The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) earlier on Saturday closed and then reopened airspace in Montana after temporarily barring flights in an area about 50 by 50 nautical miles (93 by 93 km) around Havre, Montana, near the Canadian border.
The FAA issued similar flight restrictions in response to the earlier suspected Chinese spy balloon.
Three lawmakers said on Twitter there was an unidentified object seen in Montana airspace Saturday.
Representative Matt Rosendale, a Montana Republican, said on Twitter he was in contact with the U.S. military "and monitoring the latest issue over Havre and the northern border."
A federal gun case against U.S. President Joe Biden's son Hunter opened Monday with jury selection, following the collapse of a plea deal that would have avoided the spectacle of a trial so close the 2024 election. First lady Jill Biden was seated in the front row of the courtroom, in a show of support for her son.
United States Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin told a gathering of top security officials Saturday that war with China was neither imminent nor unavoidable, despite rapidly escalating tensions in the Asia-Pacific region, stressing the importance of renewed dialogue between him and his Chinese counterpart in avoiding "miscalculations and misunderstandings."