What a surprise, in our 2023: balloons were used for military observation in the distant nineteenth century, is it possible that they still play a role today, in the era of satellites and spy planes? Did China really use one to fly over Alaska and Canada and steal military information? As strange as it may seem, the aeronautical analyst Antonio Bordoni (curator, among other things, of the Air-Accidents.com site) tells La Stampa that spy balloons really continue to be used in the 21st century: “They supplement the work of satellites and from a certain point of view they can be even better. We know where a given spy-satellite is and we also know, more or less, what technologies it has, so we can try to contrast it with laser beams or electronic countermeasures. Instead, a balloon suddenly appears and it is not known exactly what it has on board, so it is more difficult to blind. To put it out of use you have to knock it down and it is not certain that you have the determination to do so. This time, US President Joe Biden did not order the use of weapons. However, I consider it unlikely that he decided so, according to a rumor circulating, for fear of falling debris: balloons must necessarily be very light, therefore they contain very little material ”.
Bordoni adds that balloons of this type are not a danger to civil aviation: “A scheduled flight reaches a maximum altitude of 12,000 metres, while a spy balloon flies between 24,000 and 37,000”. They fly very fast taking advantage of the currents which are very strong (and irregular) at high altitudes. For all reasons (altitude, speed, unpredictability) they are not even an easy target for fighter planes to shoot down. However, Bordoni knows that there have been other sightings, but not so publicized; it may be that this time the Americans have talked about it to raise the case polemically against China.
Bordoni underlines a curious coincidence: “Exactly in the same area, on the border between Alaska and Canada, on November 17, 1986 a Japanese Boeing 747 cargo (JAL 1628) signaled a formation of UFOs whose presence was confirmed by American radars. I say UFO in the literal sense of the term, i.e. unidentified flying objects. I’m not saying they were extraterrestrials.”