A U.S. fighter jet shot down an unidentified object over Alaska on Friday, the White House said, though the purpose and origin of the target remain unclear. “The president ordered the military to down the object,” National Security Council spokesman John Kirby explained, adding that the incident occurred at approximately 19:30 GMT.
Kirby noted that the object was much smaller than the large Chinese balloon that crossed the United States last week and was later shot down by a U.S. fighter jet off the Atlantic coast. He described the Alaska object as “roughly the size of a small car,” flying at about 40,000 feet. It fell in northern Alaska near the Canadian border, landing in frozen water, which makes recovery feasible. “We do expect to be able to recover the debris, since it fell not only within our territorial space but, we believe, on frozen water, so a recovery effort will be made,” Kirby said.
President Biden ordered the shoot‑down because the object posed “a reasonable threat” to aviation. However, Kirby emphasized that nothing is yet known about who owns the object or its purpose. “We do not know who owns it, whether state‑owned or corporate‑owned. We don’t understand the full purpose,” he said. The U.S. military had sent a plane to observe the object before it was destroyed, and the pilot’s assessment was that it was not manned.
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