President Joe Biden ordered the Pentagon to shoot down an object spotted at 40,000 feet over Alaska, less than a week after fighter jets targeted an alleged Chinese surveillance balloon that had crossed the U.S. and provoked a national uproar.
The unidentified object, which was about the size of a car and didn’t have the ability to maneuver, “posed a reasonable threat to the safety of civilian flight,” the White House said. The nature of the craft was unknown though National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said it was far smaller than the Chinese balloon downed off the coast of South Carolina last Saturday.
The Pentagon has deployed planes and helicopters to recover the object, which fell onto ice.
