After the Air Force blew down a Chinese spy balloon above the coast of South Carolina, the three mystery objects were brought to earth.
Questions concerning the nature of the three unexplained objects that the U.S. Air Force shot down from the sky in the days since still exist.
In an article published on Thursday, Aviation Week put forward an intriguing theory about one of those three objects: a globe-trotting balloon that was “missing in action” and belonged to a hobbyist group in Illinois.
According to the report, the silver-coated, party-style “pico balloon” of the Northern Illinois Bottlecap Balloon Brigade (NIBBB) reported its last location on February 10 at around 40,000 feet off the west coast of Alaska.
On February 11, when a Lockheed Martin F-22 shot down an unidentified object nearby, projections indicated that the thing would be hovering over the center of the Yukon Territory.
Tiny pico balloons are inherently buoyant above 43,000 feet and cost between $12 and $180. Aviation Week shows these objects have an 11-gram tracker that updates their whereabouts worldwide via H.F. and VHF/UHG antennas.
The publication claimed that the three unidentified objects that were shot down between February 10 and February 12 all fit the characteristics of small pico balloons, matching their shapes, altitudes, and payloads.
Fox News Digital has contacted the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) and the NIBBB for comment.
After the Air Force shot down a Chinese spy balloon off the coast of South Carolina, the three other items were brought to earth after they had traveled across the United States.
According to President Joseph Biden on Thursday, the United States is creating “sharper guidelines” to track, monitor, and perhaps take down unidentified aircraft objects.
After the United States shot down the Chinese balloon and the other three objects, which the United States now believes were most likely “benign” things launched by private companies or research institutions, the president instructed national security adviser Jake Sullivan to head an “interagency team” to review American procedures.
Biden said he didn’t feel bad about downing the three unidentified objects. Still, he hoped the new regulations would make it easier to “discern between those that are likely to pose safety and security issues that demand action and those that do not.”
He continued, citing the legal justification for the downings—that the objects, flying between 20,000 and 40,000 feet, posed a slight risk to civilian planes—by saying, “Make no mistake, if any object presents a threat to the safety and security of the American people, I will take it down.”
The shooting down of the Chinese spy plane marked the first known incident of an unauthorized object being shot down in U.S. territory during a time of peace.
A White House adviser claimed the objects fired down might be any number of things, including balloons from a used car yard, during a meeting with governors on Monday.
