The U.S. military shot down an unidentified object over Canada’s Yukon territory

Updated February 11, 2023 at 9:12 PM ET

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said he ordered the takedown of an “unidentified object” flying over Canada’s Yukon territory on Saturday.

The object was shot down by a U.S. military fighter jet from the U.S. and Canada’s North American Aerospace Defense Command, Trudeau said.

“I spoke with President Biden this afternoon. Canadian Forces will now recover and analyze the wreckage of the object,” Trudeau said. “Thank you to NORAD for keeping the watch over North America.”

The two leaders approved the takedown of the object “out of an abundance of caution and at the recommendation of their militaries,” the White House said.

Since NORAD detected the object over Alaska on Friday evening, North American officials had closely monitored it as it crossed into Canadian airspace on Saturday, Pentagon Press Secretary Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder said in a statement. Following the call between President Biden and Trudeau, Biden authorized the F-22 to shoot down the object with a missile in Canadian territory, Ryder said.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation is working with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police to identify the object.

Hours later, Rep. Matt Rosendale, R-Mont., said officials had closed the airspace over Havre, Mont., near the Canadian border, “due to an object that could interfere with commercial air traffic.”

“The DOD will resume efforts to observe and ground the object in the morning,” he said in a tweet.

Sen. Jon Tester, D-Mont., also said he was aware of the “object in Montana air space.”

The Federal Aviation Administration had earlier said that it closed the airspace above the Montana region to support defense-related activities, before reopening it a short time later.

The incidents come a day after the U.S. military took down “a high altitude airborne object” off of the northern coast of Alaska, and a week after the military took down a Chinese spy balloon off the coast of South Carolina.

Little has been said publicly about the airborne objects

Officials have not provided any details that indicate whether the mysterious objects are related to the Chinese spy balloon.

Recovery crews are working to collect debris from the unknown airborne object sitting on sea ice near Deadhorse, Alaska, after it was taken down on Friday, the U.S. Northern Command said.

The U.S. military and the FBI are continuing attempts to identify and retrieve the remnants of the Chinese spy balloon.

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