U.S. officials have announced fighter jets have intercepted a mysterious balloon flying over Utah at high altitude.
BREAKING: The United States is tracking a high-altitude balloon flying over the Western part of the US. It is drifting slowing East in the jet stream according to reports.
Once again this does not appear to be a national security risk, but the military continues to track its… pic.twitter.com/1edirfViP0
— Brian Krassenstein (@krassenstein) February 23, 2024
Officials say the balloon is 50 feet tall, is flying at around 45,000 feet and is made of Mylar. It also contains an approximately 2-foot cube as its payload. Officials also say the balloon has no mechanism for controlling its direction and is not a threat to air traffic. They have assured the public that the balloon poses “no threat” to national security and that they are monitoring it as the jet stream carries it across the entirety of the continental United States.
Interestingly, Utah is home to the Utah Test and Training Range, which conducts exercises for the U.S. military and tests experimental military equipment. Also interesting is how U.S. officials say it poses no threat to national security when it is flying either near or over such sensitive locations and has absolutely no legitimate place to be flying over the nation.
Such statements from the government are intended as public relations damage control, and it would be naive to think that they do not know more about this balloon and its purpose than what they are telling the nation.
It is clear that the balloon came from somewhere and that someone had an interest in it flying over the United States. It was flying from west to east, so it is also clear that it came from somewhere to the west of where it was discovered. Since it was not a U.S. balloon, it is clear that it came from another country. Canada, northwest of Utah, seems an unlikely culprit.
The strongest suspicions as to the ownership of the balloon lie with China. Just last year, U.S. fighter jets intercepted a much larger balloon with a much larger payload flying over the nation. And this balloon was indeed a Chinese reconnaissance aircraft. It was eventually shot down, although only after it completed its journey over the country.
Although officials claim the balloon is a mystery, it seems the mystery is less what the balloon is or where it came from, but why the Biden administration allows it to fly freely over the United States.
