The United States military is tracking a mysterious balloon that recently flew over portions of Hawaii but did not go over any sensitive areas.
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Military personnel have been tracking the flying object since last Friday, and they have determined it poses no threat to aerial traffic or national security. The object is heading toward Mexico slowly, according to NBC News. While its owner remains unknown, it’s not thought to belong to a foreign or adversarial actor.
“Applying newly-established parameters for monitoring U.S. airspace, the Department of Defense and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) detected and observed April 28th an unmanned, balloon off the coast of Hawaii, floating at approximately 36,000 feet. Ownership of the balloon is unknown, but there is no indication that it was maneuvering or being controlled by a foreign or adversarial actor,” a Pentagon spokesperson told the Washington Examiner. “The balloon did not transit directly over defense critical infrastructure or other U.S. Government sensitive sites, nor did it pose a military or physical threat to people on the ground.”
“Although it was flying at an altitude used by civil aviation, it posed no threat to civil aviation over Hawaii,” the spokesperson continued. “Based on these observations, the Secretary of Defense concurred with the recommendation of his military commanders that no action need be taken against the balloon. The balloon is now out of Hawaii’s airspace and territorial waters. We will continue to track the balloon with the FAA.”
In late January and into February, a Chinese spy balloon flew over Alaska, into Canadian airspace, back into U.S. airspace, and then proceeded to float across the country from west to east. The U.S. Air Force shot it down once the balloon reached the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of South Carolina.
The Chinese government denied the balloon was meant for surveillance, an assessment the U.S. disagrees with. Following the incident, the Pentagon began monitoring for slower-moving aerial objects that had previously been missed based on the configuration of U.S. technology.
In the aftermath of this incident, three other balloons were spotted, though officials said these were not likely to be surveillance devices. The balloons were also shot down.
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A balloon hobby group in Illinois reported one of its balloons “missing in action” near where the U.S. military shot down an unknown aerial object in mid-February.
The U.S. military was able to recover the Chinese spy balloon but could not locate the other three due to their locations.
