A US hobby group says it lost contact with its pico balloon, last detected flying over south-east Alaska on February 11, sparking speculation it could be one of the three benign balloons downed by authorities.
The Northern Illinois Bottlecap Balloon Brigade says it has declared the balloon, which has circumnavigated the globe six times, missing in action after its last transmission indicated that it was near Hagemeister Island, off the south-west corner of Alaska
The group said on its website it was not unusual for there to be a significant amount of time between transmissions, which have previously been up to 30 days apart, particularly due to the availability of sunlight for the solar panels.
Founded in 2021, the group sends small transmitters with GPS tracking and antennas on a balloon filled with hydrogen up to 47,000 feet high and has two travelling around the world.
The group, which started with 10 members as young as 11 years old, said there was yet to be any factual evidence the balloon downed by authorities was theirs.
"As has been widely reported, no part of the object shot down by the US Air Force jet over the Yukon territory has been recovered," the group said.
"Until that happens and that object is confirmed to be an identifiable pico balloon, any assertions or claims that our balloon was involved in that incident are not supported by facts."
White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby says no one had come forward to claim ownership of the balloon and he was not aware of any official process launched on behalf of the Illinois group.
"I think it will be very difficult to make any kind of positive identification unless you can get to the debris, and even that could be a difficult process," he said.
"Unless an organisation comes forward and knows definitively that it was their property, but even that might be difficult for that entity to know."
FBI to investigate debris from Chinese balloon
Meanwhile, the US military says it has collected sensors and other debris off South Carolina from the suspected Chinese surveillance balloon shot down by a US fighter jet on February 4.
The last of the debris from the Chinese balloon is bound for an FBI laboratory in Virginia for analysis, the US military's Northern Command said.
The Northern Command said air and maritime safety perimeters had been lifted,
The Chinese balloon, which Beijing denies was a government spy vessel, spent a week flying over the United States and Canada before being shot down off the Atlantic coast on orders from President Joe Biden.
The search for two of three other objects shot down in the aftermath had also ended, the US military's Northern Command said in a statement late on Friday.
"US Northern Command recommended that search operations conclude today near Deadhorse, Alaska, and on Lake Huron, as search activities have discovered no debris from airborne objects shot down on Feb. 10 and Feb. 12, 2023," it said.
ABC/Reuters
