| Only one of the four objects shot down earlier this year was a Chinese surveillance balloon, and that was also the only one we got pictures of. The other three were described as "objects". One of them was reported to have been "cigar-shaped", and other to have messed with one of the jet's electronics. Regarding the object shot down over Canada: > Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau first announced Saturday's shootdown over the northern Yukon territory, saying Canadian forces would recover and analyze the wreckage. (...) Canadian Defence Minister Anita Anand declined to speculate about the origin of the object, which she said was cylindrical in shape. (...) "The leaders discussed the importance of recovering the object in order to determine more details on its purpose or origin," it said in a statement. https://www.reuters.com/world/us/us-still-gives-no-details-a... Officially, they gave up the search after a few days. And as for the object shot down over Alaska: > But the pilots later gave differing reports of what they observed, the source briefed on the intelligence said. (...) Some pilots said the object “interfered with their sensors” on the planes, but not all pilots reported experiencing that. (...) Some pilots also claimed to have seen no identifiable propulsion on the object, and could not explain how it was staying in the air, despite the object cruising at an altitude of 40,000 feet. (...) It’s unclear what the object looks like, or where it came from. On Friday, Ryder said it was traveling north east across Alaska. He declined to provide a physical characterization, only saying that it was “about the size of a small car” and “not similar in size or shape” to the Chinese surveillance balloon that was downed off the coast of South Carolina on February 4. (...) recovery teams are now collecting the debris that is sitting on top of ice in US territorial waters. https://edition.cnn.com/2023/02/11/politics/unidentified-obj... This one was also, officially, not recovered, for some reason. If these are not bona fide UFO's, I don't know what to call them. What I know is that no government official called them "balloons", nor were they associated with China, nor did we get to see a single photo of them. |
> The Northern Illinois Bottlecap Balloon Brigade told Aviation Week that one of its balloons had gone missing, and that it may have been among the objects shot down by the US Air Force using a Sidewinder heat-seeking missile.
> The club said that it had been tracking the course of its silver pico balloon. Its last reported position was on February 10 at 38,910 ft. off the west coast of Alaska.
> Pico ballooning involves flying high altitude balloons that resemble party balloons, then tracking their flight path as they travel across the globe. A pico balloon can cost anywhere from $12 to $180, according to reports.
[0] https://www.businessinsider.com/ufo-downed-400000-missile-ai...
Most UFO sightings are completely banal things that are not recognized at the time, like camera artifacts and (unironically) atmospheric phenomena.