Object Over Yukon Shot Down Because It Posed Threat to Civilian Aircraft, Trudeau Says

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau speaks to the media in Ottawa before boarding a flight to the Yukon on Feb. 12, 2023. (The Canadian Press/ Patrick Doyle)

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said on Feb. 12 that the unidentified cylindrical object detected in northern Canadian airspace and shot down yesterday represented a threat to aircraft.

Trudeau said the object “entered unlawfully Canadian airspace” and “represented a reasonable threat to civilian aircraft.” He said he gave the order, “to take it down,” and “recovery teams are on the ground, looking to find and analyze the object.”

The prime minister said he had spoken with U.S. President Joe Biden yesterday “and confirmed together that we will continue to do everything necessary to protect the sovereignty of our shared North American airspace, but also to do everything necessary to keep our citizens safe.”

The North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD), a joint venture between the United States and Canada to provide air defence for both countries, dispatched two F-22 jets from a military base in Anchorage, Alaska, and shot down the object over Yukon with an AIM 9X missile.

“Canadian and U.S. aircraft were scrambled, and an American F-22 successfully shot down the object,” Trudeau told reporters on the morning of Feb. 12 prior to leaving on a pre-planned trip to Whitehorse, Yukon.

This is the third instance this month where unidentified objects over North American airspace have been shot down, but this is the first one downed over Canadian airspace.

A balloon alleged to be a Chinese high-altitude surveillance balloon was shot down on Feb. 4 over water off the coast of South Carolina. Debris landed approximately 6 miles off the coast in water about 47 feet deep, near Myrtle Beach. The U.S. State Department indicated on Feb. 9 that the balloon was part of a fleet of alleged Chinese spy balloons launched to surveil “more than 40 countries across five continents,” reported The Washington Post.

A second unidentified “high-altitude object,” said to be the size of a small car, was shot down on Feb. 10 by a U.S. F-22 aircraft off the coast of Alaska, reported the U.S. Department of Defence. U.S. National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby told reporters on Feb. 10 that it was much smaller than the first downed balloon and did not have a “significant payload.”

The third object was identified flying over Canadian airspace on the afternoon of Feb. 11 and shot down at 3:41 p.m. ET, flying at about 40,000 feet north of Whitehorse, according to Canadian Defence Minister Anita Anand.

Shot Down

Anand said that “this was the first time that a NORAD operation has downed an aerial object.”

Anand said the object “posed a reasonable threat to the safety of civilian flight” and the object was taken down “approximately 100 miles from the Canada-United States border over Canadian territory in central Yukon.”

“We have no further details about the object at this time, other than it appears to be a small cylindrical object, and smaller than the one that was downed off the coast of [South] Carolina,” Anand said.

“Today is a historic day. Canada and the United States will continue to work together through the binational command of NORAD to defend our two nations. And I will recognize again the importance of this extremely close relationship that we have with the United States,” she said.

Major Olivier Gallant, a spokesperson for NORAD, said on Feb. 11 that “while we cannot discuss specifics related to these activities at this time, please note that NORAD conducts sustained, dispersed operations in the defence of North America through one or all three NORAD regions.”

Gallant also said that military aircraft “are currently operating from Alaska and Canada in support of (NORAD) activities.”

U.S. news reports indicated the object was first spotted by NORAD on the evening of Feb. 10 over Alaskan airspace.

“Two F-22 aircraft from Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, Alaska, monitored the object over U.S. airspace with the assistance of Alaska Air National Guard refuelling aircraft, tracking it closely and taking time to characterize the nature of the object,” Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder, the Pentagon press secretary, said in a statement.

A Feb. 11 Twitter update from U.S. Northern Command of NORAD indicated recovery operations are continuing near Deadhorse, Alaska, to retrieve the second object shot down over U.S. airspace. Activities are occurring on sea ice and efforts are being hampered by sea ice and Arctic weather conditions, including wind chill, snow, and limited daylight.

The Canadian Press and The Associated Press contributed to this report.