Object Shot Down Over Lake Huron by US Military Likely Crashed in Canadian Waters: Official

U.S. Air Force General Glen VanHerck, commander of U.S. Northern Command and North American Aerospace Defense Command, attends a hearing held by the House Armed Services Committee in Washington, on March 1, 2022. (Win McNamee/Getty Images)

An unidentified octagonal object shot down by a U.S. military F-16 fighter jet over Lake Huron on Feb. 12 most likely crashed in Canadian waters, according to an official.

Gen. Glen VanHerck, the head of North American Aerospace Defence Command (NORAD) and Northern Command, said during a briefing on Feb. 12 that efforts to recover the object’s remains from Lake Huron are underway.

“What we saw was [an] object that began drifting, potentially most likely landed in Canadian waters in Lake Huron,” said VanHerck. “And we have ongoing recovery operations with Coast Guard assets moving towards this area.”

VanHerck added that he remains in contact with Canadian Armed Forces chief of the defence staff Gen. Wayne Eyre.

“The Canadians were very supportive. The Canadians launched two F-18s plus their tanker as well to support this operation,” said VanHerck.

The downing of the flying object over Lake Huron comes after U.S. military planes shot down two other cylindrical objects in the days prior, one of which was brought down in northern Alaska and the other in the Yukon.

Asked by reporters about the nature of the flying objects, VanHerck said he would not “categorize them as balloons” like the high-altitude Chinese surveillance balloon shot down off the coast of South Carolina on Feb. 4.

“We’re calling them objects for a reason,” said VanHerck. “I am not able to categorize how they stay aloft. It could be a gaseous type of balloon inside a structure or it could be some type of a propulsion system. But clearly, they’re able to stay aloft.”

Canadian Response

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said on Feb. 12 before the object was shot down over Lake Huron and that the federal government is in constant communication with the U.S. to assess the situation.

“You can know that this is something that NORAD and Canada and the United States are taking extremely seriously, and we will continue to keep people informed as we know more,” he said during a press conference.

The prime minister added that efforts to recover the remains of the flying object shot down in the Yukon several days prior were ongoing.

The Canadian military and RCMP recovery teams were searching for the object’s remains using a CP-160 aircraft on Feb. 11.

“There’s still much to know about it,” Trudeau said. “That’s why the analysis of this object is going to be very important.”

Defence Minister Anita Anand said on the same day that it was “potentially similar” to the Chinese surveillance balloon shot down by the U.S. earlier in February.

“It appears to be a cylindrical object and we are working to analyze the debris to identify more specifics about this object,” she said, adding that it “appears to be smaller in size” than the balloon shot down on Feb. 4 by the United States.

“At this point that is the information that I can share,” Anand said.

Jack Phillips and The Canadian Press contributed to this report.