Warplane shot down object over northern Canada: PM Trudeau
The Hindu
The object was the third known to have violated North American airspace in the past two weeks
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Saturday that on his order a U.S. warplane shot down an unidentified object that was flying high over northern Canada, acting a day after U.S. planes took a similar action over Alaska.
Shortly before Mr. Trudeau's tweet, the North American Aerospace Defense Command said it had detected an object flying at high altitude over Canada. NORAD gave no further information, including when the object was first spotted or what it is.
A spokesman, Maj. Olivier Gallant, said both Canadian and U.S. warplanes operating as part of NORAD had been deployed.
On Twitter, Mr. Trudeau then announced: “I ordered the take down of an unidentified object that violated Canadian airspace. @NORADCommand 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.”
The object was the third known to have violated North American airspace in the past two weeks.
In a second tweet, Mr. Trudeau said: “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.”
A suspected Chinese spy balloon spent nearly a week flying through Canada and U.S. airspace before it was shot down by U.S. warplanes off South Carolina last Sunday.
