President Joe Biden says the three unknown flying objects he ordered shot down over the U.S. and Canada earlier this month were likely no danger to national security. Biden speaks about the Chinese surveillance balloon and other unidentified objects shot down by the U.S. military, Thursday, Feb. 16, 2023, in Washington. THE CANADIAN PRESS/AP-Evan Vucci
WASHINGTON – President Joe Biden says the three unknown flying objects he ordered shot down over the U.S. and Canada earlier this month were likely no danger to national security.
Biden says the objects were downed expressly because they did pose a potential risk to commercial air traffic.
Biden, who spoke out after members of Congress had urged him to do so, says the U.S. and Canada worked closely together to monitor the objects before acting out of an abundance of caution.
He says there’s nothing to suggest they were surveillance devices, and were more likely linked to private research or recreational activities.
He says the White House plans new rules and regulations for launching unmanned objects in U.S. airspace, as well as a better inventory of devices that are currently in the sky.
Recovery teams are currently working on retrieving the wreckage from the frozen Arctic Ocean north of Alaska, a remote stretch of Yukon and the depths of Lake Huron.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 16, 2023.
