Observers see US Coast Guard aircraft flying search pattern Monday just south of Island
LAKE HURON—An unidentified high-altitude object was shot down by the United States over Lake Huron this past Sunday, south of Manitoulin Island. The object was in US air space and was close to passing over the US-Canada border when it was brought down.
“It’s pretty serious when they close airspace,” said Robby Colwell, manager of the Gore Bay-Manitoulin Airport, which received notice at about 2:55 pm Sunday that airspace was closed south of Manitoulin Island. He said the only other time airspace has been closed for emergency purposes near Manitoulin was following the September 11, 2001 (9-11) terrorist attack in New York City and Washington, D.C.
At 11 am Monday, an observer at Michael’s Bay reported seeing a US Coast Guard Hercules aircraft flying a pattern over Lake Huron, in all likelihood attempting to spot debris from the ‘space object’ the US military had shot down the previous afternoon.
The observer reported the aircraft was flying a northwest-southeast pattern with its northerly loops approximately 8-10 miles off Manitoulin between Michael’s Bay and Square Bay.
Carol Hughes, MP for Algoma-Manitoulin-Kapuskasing told The Expositor, “I’m not quite sure at this point what to make of all of it. It is concerning that these objects are there. But we will have to wait and see when they retrieve the materials.”
“No one mentioned if this object was the same as the balloon shot down over a week ago after crossing parts of Canada and the US. It was established that this first object was a Chinese property, which China claims was merely a weather information gathering device. We will have to see once additional information is released,” added the MP. “Some US politicians feel that this object and others could have been there all along and are not tied to China. We all have to be careful not to blame anyone until we have more information.” She added, “they had to close airspace. We need to get to the bottom of what’s going on with all of these sightings.”
John Francis, publisher of The Bruce Peninsula Press in Tobermory was contacted by The Expositor Sunday afternoon and said he could “hear fighter jets overhead from my house (in Tobermory),” at about 4:50 pm Sunday. “It’s not as close as it sounds. We first heard it when I was out for a walk at about 3:30 pm, but we couldn’t see it or any contrails from the jets.”
Numerous reports indicated the object was shaped like an octagon with strings hanging off it and it did not appear to be carrying anything. It was shot down by a US F-16 fighter jet and was flying at 20,000 feet over Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, about to go over Lake Huron when it was neutralized. An elected US Representative said in a Facebook post that the object was decommissioned before 3:30 pm.
The North American Aerospace Defense Command determined that taking gunshots at the object, in attempts to better preserve it for examination on the ground, was unachievable, due to the relatively small size of the objects. General Glen VanHerck, the commander of the US Northern Command and North American Aerospace Command told CNN News, “we assessed taking a gunshot in that event (the object brought down Saturday over Canadian territories in the Yukon), as well as today (Sunday), and the pilots in each situation felt that was really unachievable because of the size, especially yesterday (Saturday) in the altitude and also because of the challenge to acquire it visually because its’s so small.”
General VanHerck also said, “we have taken extreme caution to ensure that we limit potential collateral damage, so today (Sunday), we worked closely with FAA to clear out the airspace. I gave direction specifically to the pilots to use their visual acuity to check for mariners on the ground, airplanes in the air to clear with their radars as well. And when they were comfortable, that we can minimize collateral damage. They selected the best weapon today (Sunday afternoon) and that was the AIM 9x (missile). And they took the shot.”
He said the object was shot down on Sunday and recovery efforts with the US Coast Guard are ongoing.
Canada’s Defence Minister Anita Anand said Sunday that Canada supported the shooting down of the object. “Today, a high-altitude object was detected in US airspace over Lake Huron. NORAD launched Canadian and US aircraft to investigate and the object was taken down in US airspace by US aircraft.
“We unequivocally support this action, and we’ll continue to work with the US and NORAD to protect North America,” said Ms. Anand.
On Saturday, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau ordered NORAD planes to shoot down a balloon over the Yukon Territory and military crews are searching for the debris.
Sunday’s Lake Huron incident represents the fourth high-altitude object shot down by an American fighter jet in a joint United States-Canada military mission. On Saturday, another airborne object was shot down over the Yukon Territory by joint military mission led by the North American Aerospace Defense Command. Last Friday, another high-altitude object was shot down by US fighter craft over Alaskan waters. These three events follow the much-followed drama of the so-called Chinese spy balloon that was shot down into US Atlantic coastal waters near South Carolina.
