US Fighter Jet Successfully Shoots Down Unidentified Flying Object in Canadian Airspace

On Monday, a Pentagon memo obtained by CNN revealed that the unidentified flying object shot down in Canadian airspace on Saturday was a “small, metallic balloon with a tethered payload below it.” Army Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, confirmed Tuesday that a missile fired by a U.S. fighter jet at a high-altitude object detected over Michigan on Sunday missed its target and landed in Lake Huron.

The memo offers the first official details of one of the three objects shot down in recent days that was previously described as a “cylindrical object.” Defense officials also told lawmakers that the object shot down over Lake Huron, in Michigan on Sunday, “subsequently slowly descended” into the water after impact. The object crossed near “US sensitive sites” before it was shot down, the document said.

Gen. Milley said that the first shot fired at the object over Lake Huron missed, but the second shot hit. He also noted that the U.S. is “very, very careful to make sure that those shots are, in fact, safe,” and that the guidance from the President is to “shoot it down but make sure we don’t cause any harm.”

The shooting down of the unidentified flying object is the latest in a series of recent incidents involving unidentified flying objects in the U.S. and Canada. The Pentagon is currently investigating the incidents, and the cause of the objects is still unknown. It is unclear if the object shot down in Canadian airspace was related to the other incidents.