On Thursday, President Biden addressed the nation about a series of unidentified flying objects that were shot down by U.S. fighter jets in recent days.
“I gave the order to take down these three objects due to hazards to civilian commercial air traffic. And because we could not rule out the surveillance risk of sensitive facilities. We acted in consultation with the Canadian government. I spoke firstly with prime minister Trudeau,” Biden said Thursday.
Biden suggested the newest objects were not part of a foreign spying program. “The three objects are most likely balloons tied to private companies, recreation or research institutions, studying weather or conducting other scientific research,” he said.
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And a hobby club in Illinois may have the answer to the mysterious UFOs.
According to Aviation Week, an Illinois-based hobbyist club on Feb. 15 emerged as a candidate to explain one of the three mystery objects shot down by four heat-seeking missiles launched by U.S. Air Force fighters since Feb. 10, declaring a globe-trotting balloon “missing in action.”
As reported by Aviation Week, “the club’s silver-coated, party-style “pico balloon” reported its last position on Feb. 10 at 38,910 ft. off the west coast of Alaska, and a popular forecasting tool—the HYSPLIT model provided by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)—projected the cylindrically shaped object would be floating high over the central part of the Yukon Territory on Feb. 11. That is the same day a Lockheed Martin F-22 shot down an unidentified object of a similar description and altitude in the same general area.”
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“I tried contacting our military and the FBI—and just got the runaround—to try to enlighten them on what a lot of these things probably are. And they’re going to look not too intelligent to be shooting them down,” says Ron Meadows, the founder of Scientific Balloon Solutions (SBS), a Silicon Valley company that makes purpose-built pico balloons for hobbyists, educators, and scientists, told Aviation Week.
According to the outlet, all three of the ‘UFOs’ shot down from Feb. 10-12 match the shapes, altitudes, and payloads of the small pico balloons. These balloons range in price from $12 to $180 each.
The Sidewinder heat-seeking missiles cost over $400,000 each.
“I’m guessing probably they were pico balloons,” said Tom Medlin, a retired FedEx engineer and co-host of the Amateur Radio Roundtable show, told Aviation Week.
NORAD told Fox News Digital on Thursday that the FBI has spoken with the hobby club and expects the National Security Council to have more on potentially identifying the objects.
The downing of the three objects came after the Air Force shot down a Chinese spy balloon over the coast of South Carolina after it had traversed the U.S.
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