United States fighter planes intercepted an unidentified balloon over Utah on Friday but determined it did not pose a threat to national security, according to the North American Aerospace Defense Command.
The balloon, which is traveling eastward with the jetstream at around 43,000 feet, or roughly 8 miles, is “not maneuverable” and poses “no hazard to flight safety,” according to the command’s statement. It is unclear who owns the balloon.
The incident occurred approximately a year after the highly contentious seven-day ordeal in which the Pentagon tracked a massive Chinese spy balloon that crossed the entire continental United States before an F-22 fighter shot it down over the Atlantic Ocean.
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Congress was incensed by the incident because of how long the Pentagon tracked the spy balloon before shooting it down and permitting it to fly near military installations.
Chinese officials insisted that the balloon was only meant to gather weather data and that the reason it went off course was because of erratic winds, and they denied that it was spying on people.
After that incident, American fighter aircraft began responding to similar situations more quickly, bringing down three smaller aircraft over Canada, Alaska, and Lake Huron.
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