UFO shot down by $400K US missile may have been a $12 hobby balloon: report

Vorastra

Honorary Master
Joined
Jan 13, 2013
Messages
22,802
Reaction score
25,285
Location
Vasari Space

One of the UFOs shot down last weekend by the US Air Force with a $400,000 missile may have simply been a $12 balloon belonging to an Illinois enthusiast club, a report said.

The Northern Illinois Bottlecap Balloon Brigade told Aviation Week on Thursday that it fears one of its diligently-tracked gasbags that recently went missing was mistaken as the mystery object taken out by the military over Canada on Saturday.
The Pico Balloon — a silver-coated, cylindrically shaped object — reported its last position at 38,910 ft. off the west coast of Alaska on Friday.

By Saturday, based on the balloon’s projected path, it would have been over the central part of the Yukon Territory around the same time a military Lockheed Martin F-22 shot down an unidentified object of a similar description and altitude in the same Canadian vicinity, the outlet reported.
 
proud-american-eagle-sun-leil.jpg
 
So an object travelling at slow speed, stabile trajectory and height is deemed a threat and not deemed likely a balloon

Murica fk yeeeeeah
 
I wonder if they had a license or the allowed provisions. Many countries , including ours , do not allow model/recreational aircraft/toys to go above 100m in altitude.
From the article.

In fact, the pico balloons weigh less than 6 lb. and therefore are exempt from most FAA airspace restrictions, Meadows and Medlin said. Three countries—North Korea, Yemen and the UK—restrict transmissions from balloons in their airspace, so the community has integrated geofencing software into the tracking devices. The balloons still overfly the countries, but do not transmit their positions over their airspace.

The community is also nervous that their balloons could be shot down next. Medlin says one of his balloons—call sign W5KUB-112—is projected by HYSPLIT to enter U.S. airspace on Feb. 17. It already circumnavigated the globe several times, but its trajectory last carried the object over China before it will enter either Mexican or U.S. airspace.
 
Do these fancy jets not have normal guns ?

Surely if they did a flyby it would have wrecked the balloon ?
Too high i think, for a f22 anyway

Edit. Seems within max height for a f22. So who knows
 
Last edited:
I got my assessment on this one wrong, but I blame the US intelligence reports. They said this UFO was cylindrical, but smaller than the Chinese spy balloon, but didn't say how much smaller. Just to add, though the US eliminated this balloon, the Canadian Prime Minister, Trudeau, gave them the instruction to do so. Still, the UFO was assessed by NORAD, so it is their intelligence being disseminated.

Anyhow, it isn't certain at this point in time whether it is this enthusiast club's balloon. The Canadians and the US can shrug at this one, and they will tell us what has been recovered.
 
Do these fancy jets not have normal guns ?

Surely if they did a flyby it would have wrecked the balloon ?
Guns don't work reliably since the Canadians tried it in 1998 and the balloon was still there a 1000 rounds later. Gun runs are also extremely dangerous as you have a fast moving jet versus a small stationary target.
 
Top
Sign up to the MyBroadband newsletter