Considered one of the UFOs shot down last weekend by the US Air Force with a $400,000 missile can have simply been a $12 balloon belonging to an Illinois enthusiast club, a report said.
The Northern Illinois Bottlecap Balloon Brigade told Aviation Week on Thursday that it fears one in every of its diligently-tracked gasbags that recently went missing was mistaken because the mystery object taken out by the military over Canada on Saturday.
The Pico Balloon — a silver-coated, cylindrically shaped object — reported its last position at 38,910 ft. off the west coast of Alaska on Friday.
By Saturday, based on the balloon’s projected path, it could have been over the central a part of the Yukon Territory around the identical time a military Lockheed Martin F-22 shot down an unidentified object of an analogous description and altitude in the identical Canadian vicinity, the outlet reported.
The NIBBB — a gaggle of enthusiasts dedicated to creating, releasing and tracking homemade balloons — declared its K9YO device “missing in motion” on Saturday.
The K9YO balloon had circumnavigated the globe six times during a 123-day span before its tracking device went dark Friday.
The Air Force used Sidewinder missiles of their targeted attacks against suspected Chinese spy balloons and mystery UFOs, Fortune reported. Each missile comes at a price tag of roughly $400,000.
The US also downed airborne objects over Alaska on Friday and Lake Huron on Sunday.
Pico Balloons, nevertheless, typically fall between $12 and $180 each depending on the kind, Aviation Week reported.
White House officials admitted this week that “tons of, if not 1000’s” of objects within the sky — including the UFOs it shot down last week — might be as innocuous as “used automobile lot balloons.”
The North American Aerospace Defense Command told Fox News that the FBI reached out to the NIBBB and “expects the National Security Council to have more on potentially identifying the objects.”
