by The White House said on Monday that the flying objects recently brought down over U.S. and Canadian airspace were not any type of alien spacecraft and did not appear to be spy devices bearing any resemblance to the Chinese airship that was shot down by a plane. warship in South Carolina earlier. this month.
Speaking at the start of the daily White House press briefing, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre addressed what she described as “questions and concerns” about the objects that have been brought down across the US and Canada in recent days. .
“I just wanted to make sure we addressed this from the White House: I know there have been questions and concerns about this, but there is no – again no – indication of aliens or extraterrestrial activity with these recent drops,” she said.
As for the more terrestrial origins of the flying objects, National Security Council spokesman John Kirby did not say whether US or Canadian officials have determined the ownership or purpose of the devices that were shot down by aircraft on the orders of President Joe Biden and of Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. over a period of days last week.
But Kirby was at pains to emphasize that they did not appear to be related to the Chinese airship that crossed US airspace earlier this month and said the objects were shot down because they posed threats to civilian aviation due to the altitudes at which they traveled. .
“We do not assess that these newer objects pose any direct threat to people on the ground. And we are focused on confirming their nature and purpose, including through intensive efforts to collect debris from the remote locations where it fell,” he said.
Kirby said US officials took a “basic course” with each of the objects downed to assess whether they posed physical or intelligence threats.
“We assessed whether they posed any kinetic threat to people on the ground, but no. We evaluated whether they were sending any communication signals, we detected none. We looked to see if they were maneuvering or had any propulsion capability, we saw no signs of that. And we made sure to determine if they were manned or not — they weren’t, he said.”
He added that US officials “assessed, however, that their altitudes were considerably lower than the Chinese high-altitude balloon and posed a threat to civilian commercial air traffic.”
Continuing, Kirby said the US government has “no reason” to suspect that the as-yet-unidentified objects were “conducting surveillance of any kind”, but he emphasized that such a possibility has not yet been ruled out.
The inability to determine whether surveillance was taking place was why Biden ordered objects in US airspace to be shot down, he added.
