Mystery aerial objects raise questions about national security threat

WASHINGTON — As U.S. Navy divers and salvage crews plucked pieces of downed aerial objects from the Arctic Sea to the kinder waters off South Carolina, the Biden administration on Monday was racing to learn what the latest mystery vessels were and who launched them.

U.S. fighter jets shot down three unmanned aircraft over the weekend: one near Alaska’s remote frigid northern coastline on Friday, another over Canada’s Yukon region on Saturday and a third over Lake Huron off Michigan’s Upper Peninsula on Sunday.

Pentagon and State Department officials say they are confident that the balloon downed on Feb. 4 off the Atlantic Ocean coast — after it traversed the U.S. for 96 hours and had Americans on high alert and looking skyward — was part of a vast Chinese spy project.