An unidentified object flying at high altitude was shot down today in the skies over Alaska at 13.45 local time – 19.45 in Italy, with a Sidewinder missile launched from an F-22 jet: the Pentagon spokesman said Pat Ryder. The order came directly from the president of the United States, Joe Biden: “It could have posed a threat to civilian flights.” The spokesman for the White House National Security Council explained it, John Kirbyat the press conference. “The object was like a small aircraft and was flying at a height of 40,000 feet”, he specified, explaining that the object – “still unidentified and whose provenance is unknown” – was shot down , a US fighter jet.
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The object fell in the extreme north-east of Alaska near the Canadian border, specified Kirby. According to the pilot of the jet, no humans were on board. The episode certainly brings to mind the Chinese spy balloon shot down over American territory on February 4th. This last object shot down, however, was not defined as a “balloon”. And Kirby specified that the Biden administration had been aware of his presence since last night.
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For his part, the US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin he said he did not contact his Chinese counterpart across the “red line” this time as he had attempted to do before shooting down the former. This was stated by Pentagon spokesman General Pat Ryder, responding with a “no” to a reporter’s question whether there had been a telephone call between Washington and Beijing. The statement comes after the revelation about the first ‘spy balloon’ shot down last week: the United States had unsuccessfully called Beijing to establish contact, using the emergency “red telephone”. It had been an attempt to avoid the risk of escalation between the two countries. The Chinese defense minister Wei Fenghe he hadn’t answered, letting it ring.
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