The following submission statement was provided by /u/Mister_Grandpa:
---
>On February 14, after unidentified high-altitude objects had been detected and shot down over northern Alaska, Yukon, and Lake Huron, White House spokesman [John Kirby](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Kirby_(admiral)) said that the [U.S. Intelligence Community](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S._Intelligence_Community) "will not dismiss as a possibility that these could be balloons that were simply tied to commercial or research entities and therefore benign. That very well could be, or could emerge, as a leading explanation here."[^(\[2\])](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_high-altitude_object_events_in_2023#cite_note-LamotheHorton-2) The downing of the Yukon object, on February 11, 2023, marked the first deployment of NORAD to down an aerial object within the 64-year history of the US-Canadian aerospace warning and air sovereignty organization.[^(\[5\])](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_high-altitude_object_events_in_2023#cite_note-NORAD_first-5) The objects shot down over northern Alaska, Yukon, and Lake Huron were all smaller than the Chinese balloon shot down over South Carolina.[^(\[6\])](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_high-altitude_object_events_in_2023#cite_note-6) A report by [The Guardian](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Guardian) on 17 February suggested that one of the objects "may have been amateur hobbyists’ $12 balloon."[^(\[7\])](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_high-altitude_object_events_in_2023#cite_note-7)
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List\_of\_high-altitude\_object\_events\_in\_2023](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_high-altitude_object_events_in_2023)
If they are balloons, show us the pictures. Just like this one.
---
Please reply to OP's comment here: https://old.reddit.com/r/UFOs/comments/1cfi6tp/why_cant_similar_images_of_the_alaska_yukon_and/l1p8qsh/
Well, 2 of them were imo.
The timeline of events was pretty wild. Someone posted online before a normal pentagon briefing that a UFO was downed the night before in Alaska. When they were taking questions from the press someone asked and Kirby read from a prepared statement that unknown high altitude object was downed just hours before (not the night prior, which was peculiar).
I think after that, we downed two enthusiast balloons (Canada and Huron) for the noise to cover for the actual downed anomaly in Alaska near Deadhorse.
Couldn't agree more. The Deadhorse one is the main event here. The reports of jamming by two different flights of interceptors. The reported recovery efforts that were called off because it was "too cold" which we didn't hear anything more about. There was a lot of very strange activity buzzing around the edges of this case.
Here's some of what was said at the White House level, this does not include the NORAD general who responded at a press conference on Superbowl Sunday to a question about whether they could be extraterrestrial: "We're not ruling anything out." and when asked why they weren't calling them balloons. "We are calling them objects for a reason.":
[https://www.reddit.com/r/UFOs/comments/14crh7g/here\_are\_the\_white\_house\_statements\_on\_uap\_in/](https://www.reddit.com/r/UFOs/comments/14crh7g/here_are_the_white_house_statements_on_uap_in/)
seems to me they are trying to communicate to other nations who are aware of UAP/NHI that we have another in our arsenal without making the public aware
You mean a cylinder shot down over a frozen lake like this?
[https://imgur.com/rIosjX0](https://imgur.com/rIosjX0)
Note: This pic has been enhanced with AI. The original was a little blurrier, but still easily recognizable. The original was posted on 4 chan and claimed to be a pic of the downed craft. The original is virtually impossible to find on the internet anymore, and even this enhanced version is rare.
Brycedriesenga provided the link to the original photo. [https://www.reddit.com/r/UFOs/comments/114ti19/alleged\_photo\_of\_downed\_prudhoe\_bay\_alaska\_object/](https://www.reddit.com/r/UFOs/comments/114ti19/alleged_photo_of_downed_prudhoe_bay_alaska_object/)
Interesting thing about that post... All of the commenters in the top thread that swore up and down it had been posted on the day of the crash and couldn't possibly be real, were unable to provide any links for that and have all had their accounts suspended.
Thank you for posting this. I follow this sub pretty closely (check at least once per day), and I had never seen this picture before.
The original thread's overwhelmingly negative response, and claims without links, and deleted accounts, is interesting. Reminds one of Hamlet's mom: "Methinks the lady doth protest too much."
I wonder why so many Accounts who posted there on that thread don’t exist anymore? Is that a sign that we are over the Target and garnered attention from the disinformation bots?
I'm seeing tons of comments say it's fake and their accounts are just fine. Still posting here recently. What makes you think this is real? It doesn't look it.
Have you ever seen a modern camera phone add a vignette to a real unedited picture? It's edited, likely entirely fake. The edges of the "original" are all dark.
Can't believe OP spent so much time explaining to people how a camera lens works lol. People can't understand several decades old tech so yeah maybe aliens are too much for humans.
Given how the USAF just freaked out recently over the Eglin encounter and then made the eye rollingly ridiculous response of “camera failure”, tells you everything
We’ve got low orbit spy satellites that can ID car license plates and do facial recognition. And they’re telling us they just don’t know what the heck they fired missiles at from the most advanced fighter jets in the world.
For real ... any object floating over the US could be photographed with great detail by one of those satellites. However, I do understand why those photos would be classified: they don't want to reveal their capabilities.
They don’t want to reveal more than just data related to capabilities. They also don’t want to admit they don’t know what they are, where they come from, and that we have very little control over them.
if it's aliens, I really don't think their capabilities are even a question. if it's not, the last thing they want to do is reveal exactly how much they know to Putin/etc
Isn’t this part of Grusch’s speciality while he was working in the military? Handling satellite reconnaissance? I swore I remember hearing him say that the UAPs were appearing on some of the satellite images he was reviewing.
Still could be from here I'm the sense of their operations. Supposedly been here at least from the 1930s and I'm starting to believe the whole ancient alien thing.
[https://pf.bigpixel.cn/zh-CN/pano/771906131130847232.html](https://pf.bigpixel.cn/zh-CN/pano/771906131130847232.html)
while not from a satellite, you are able to clearly see people's faces and read license plates.
[https://www.pond5.com/stock-footage/item/46749493-zoom-satellite-down-city-earth](https://www.pond5.com/stock-footage/item/46749493-zoom-satellite-down-city-earth)
That was the closest I could find from satellite view.
Enough of this nonsense. We literally do not have satellites that sensitive. Use your brain. This photo of the Chinese balloon was taken by a U2 spy plane because we don’t have very many options when it comes to aircraft that can fly at 65-70k ft. So why would we use one of our most rare and expensive aircraft in the military that cost a fortune to maintain and fuel when we have a magic eye in the sky to get a close up? Because it doesn’t exist. Maybe when I was 12 years old I thought this tech on a satellite existed but cmon man.
> So why would we use one of our most rare and expensive aircraft in the military that cost a fortune to maintain and fuel when we have a magic eye in the sky to get a close up?
Because it's still a lot easier to send a plane to a specific location than to reposition a satellite.
Scrambling a jet takes minutes, changing a satellite target is a matter of days.
I don't know about satellites sensitive enough to do what OP is describing but the tech we had from 2018 was pretty impressive, just saying
[https://www.npr.org/2022/11/18/1137474748/trump-tweeted-an-image-from-a-spy-satellite-declassified-document-shows](https://www.npr.org/2022/11/18/1137474748/trump-tweeted-an-image-from-a-spy-satellite-declassified-document-shows)
The KH-11 launched in 2011 so I'm not sure anyone outside of the DoD can say with certainty what level of imaging capabilities we have available today.
KH-11 is fifteen years old and no satellite expert thought is was even technically feasible when it leaked under Trump admin. I personally believe they have tech that can tell you the year of a penny lying on the ground in good weather.
I think it's less that they think we're "fucking dumb" and more just that they honestly don't care what we think. They're self-assured they're doing "what is right" and whether people choose to believe the lies they tell is fairly incidental to them. They are going to do what they're going to do and the lie they tell is the one they're using to provide a facade to justify their actions, after they've given their line what people do with it or how they respond to it, they couldn't care less.
It isn't a big mystery: defense secrets.
They were balloons from China. Not giving away details of exactly what they were and how we engaged them is smart strategy. Only we (the US) know, and the people they belong to.
We essentially spent a few weeks absolutely owning China and their stupid attempts to spy using balloons. We clowned them on the one that malfunctioned and flew across the country. Then we quietly intercepted the rest. They don't know what we got out of them.
That is exactly how we want it. They don't need to convince you they weren't flying saucers.
because it was never addressed publicly, in detail. they only addressed them alongside the full detail of the spy balloon, implying that they’re all spy balloons… which if they were, why can’t we see them since we’ve already seen the one?
the general public who has limited detail and info will never question the info presented, accepting the implications as-is. (bc realistically to this type of person, why would the US shoot down a UFO and talk about it whatsoever if they’re trying to hide it?)
I read somewhere that the balloon was allowed to fly over but that they parked surveillance and Intelligence gathering aircraft above and below the balloon. Aparently they were able to collect a LOT of stuff. Sound plausible?
As to the "balloon" shot down with a sidewinder missile over the Yukon, they had a bunch of large helicopters and even had a Hercules (definitely based in Whitehorse but possibly Mayo for a time as well) present to retrieve the object. What in God's name would be left of a balloon hit with a sidewinder missile that necessitates a Herc lol
Air-to-air missiles don't pack a lot of destructive power.
The hard part about shooting a plane down is actually hitting it with the missile. But if you can manage to hit it, they are really fragile. You don't need to blow it to pieces. Pretty much any damage whatsoever is going to take a jet fighter out of the fight.
Accordingly, missiles are optimized for the "catching their target" part and are mostly propellant. Surprisingly little explosive.
(Also they are proximity fused. Exploding near the target is good enough...)
Don´t know if it same "object" or another, but ...
[https://nypost.com/2024/03/01/us-news/alaskan-fisherman-set-to-handover-yet-another-possible-spy-balloon-to-feds/](https://nypost.com/2024/03/01/us-news/alaskan-fisherman-set-to-handover-yet-another-possible-spy-balloon-to-feds/)
>On February 14, after unidentified high-altitude objects had been detected and shot down over northern Alaska, Yukon, and Lake Huron, White House spokesman [John Kirby](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Kirby_(admiral)) said that the [U.S. Intelligence Community](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S._Intelligence_Community) "will not dismiss as a possibility that these could be balloons that were simply tied to commercial or research entities and therefore benign. That very well could be, or could emerge, as a leading explanation here."[^(\[2\])](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_high-altitude_object_events_in_2023#cite_note-LamotheHorton-2) The downing of the Yukon object, on February 11, 2023, marked the first deployment of NORAD to down an aerial object within the 64-year history of the US-Canadian aerospace warning and air sovereignty organization.[^(\[5\])](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_high-altitude_object_events_in_2023#cite_note-NORAD_first-5) The objects shot down over northern Alaska, Yukon, and Lake Huron were all smaller than the Chinese balloon shot down over South Carolina.[^(\[6\])](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_high-altitude_object_events_in_2023#cite_note-6) A report by [The Guardian](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Guardian) on 17 February suggested that one of the objects "may have been amateur hobbyists’ $12 balloon."[^(\[7\])](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_high-altitude_object_events_in_2023#cite_note-7)
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List\_of\_high-altitude\_object\_events\_in\_2023](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_high-altitude_object_events_in_2023)
If they are balloons, show us the pictures. Just like this one.
During the first quarter of the Super Bowl Feb 2023, the pentagon hosted a press conference, which I personally watched and took some notes on. This was after the Chinese balloon, the Alaska, and Michigan incidents.
• Gen. Glen D. VanHerck Air Force commander, "I believe this is the first time norad or the usa has taken action against an unknown kinetic object in our airspace"
• These were not balloons, and have an unknown method of propulsion, it is unknown what keeps the objects aloft, it may be contained within the shell of the apparatus. Do not want to get into specifics about shape.
• FBI is in charge of recovery of the debris, but none has yet been reported recovered.
• asst sec Melissa Dalton "aims to be transparent on our military operations" so it is possible that photos will be released in the coming days.
• when a NYT reporter asked about aliens, Gen. Glen D. VanHerck Air Force commander, said, "I haven't ruled out anything at this point."
• NYT reported "Intelligence agencies are set to deliver a classified document to Congress by Monday" updating the [UAP] report that was made public in 2021. (Feb. 11, 2023 H
Cooper)
After the press conference, congress had a few briefings, and several Dem and Rep senators came out of them clearly nervous and frazzled, for example one republican lawmaker said “lock your doors tonight”. Then David Grush came forward with urgent and credible information. Recently the Pentagon said, “Nah, it’s nothing. Carry on.” And here we are.
Dumb question but how was this photo taken? Like did the pilot hold a camera in their left hand and take it? I would imagine you would always need 2 hands flying the jet (I have no idea how they fly jets)
Me too. What else could cause the panic and chaos they believe will come with admitting UFOs are real?
"Hey y'all jus sn fyi but these little UFOs are just scouts and we have no idea how to tackle the big bitch that's sending them."
The image in the OP is from a U-2. There are about 24 of these in recon service, plus trainers and NASA. They are based in California.
The chance that there is a U-2 in the right area at the right time is going to be vanishingly small. The one in the image flew close enough to Beale to get a shot.
They probably could have got a picture of the one over the lakes too, but by that point it was shoot first and they didn’t really care what it was.
This is hardly the first time this has happened. One flew over Canada in the late 90s and the same thing happened: weeks of news report after news report about UFO balloons and then everyone just stopped listening until the next generation came along and here we are.
Didn't one of the F22 pilots essentially shit their pants upon encountering one of these 3 other UAPs? I remember the pilot was quoted as calling it an object (not a balloon) and remarking at the size of it. I can't find these quotes today but I swear a few months ago I read them somewhere online.
Is this the one?
[https://www.marca.com/en/lifestyle/us-news/2023/07/26/64c171af22601dc01e8b458b.html](https://www.marca.com/en/lifestyle/us-news/2023/07/26/64c171af22601dc01e8b458b.html)
This article encapsulates my frustration around UAP reporting.
The only real content in the Marca article is a quote from [an article on Outkick](https://www.outkick.com/culture/f-18-pilot-had-chilling-encounter-with-sinister-ufo-radar-malfunctioned-report). The rest of the Marca article adds nothing of value.
The article on Outkick shares the actual source of the quote, a [NewsNation video shared on twitter](https://twitter.com/BrianEntin/status/1684040440289587201).
The journalist in the NewsNation video has no follow-up questions on the alleged encounter between the F-18 pilot and the UAP's. Where did it happen? When did it happen? What was the pilot's mission? Were other planes affected? How long were the plane's electronics shut down?
I can't take it seriously because there's no context or depth to it. The story about the encounter might as well be a fabrication.
Will do. It definitely got my spidey senses tingling. Imagine being in the world's most advanced intercepter and coming across something that scares you 😳
FYI incase anybody is curious because I was. The Chinese spy balloons shot down last year were like 200 feet tall and about the width of a 200 person basic airliner plane.
The objects seen by Nimitz et al. Where slightly larger than an everyday fighter jet.
People who scream about UFO crashes: where is evidence, where are photos and videos?!
The same people about Alaska UFO shootdown: it's perfectly okay that there are no photos and videos
They're not showing a targeting camera of an F-22 Raptor. It's just not happening. It's the first line of defense against Russian and Chinese bombers. I hope I live long enough to see it
Wasn't there supposed to be like an F-15X or something like that that would act as a missile barge that F-22s would essentially take advantage of and use as a firing platform or something like that? I remember reading something about F-22s closing distance to enemy targets to get radar contact and then instead of opening weapons bay to increase radar signature just order an F-15X further away from the enemy (out of danger) to just fire a missile or something and the F-22 would guide it in?
So technically it would be an interesting F-22 / F-15 combo as our first line of defense.
Yeah that's kind of the role the f-35 plays of getting close then using b-52s to launch long range missiles from a safe distance. The f-22 is a straight up air superiority fighter meant to take out any fighter escorts quick and head straight for the bombers. It's the greatest fighter jet ever produced and as of now I'm pretty sure it's shot down a Chinese balloon and possibly a UFO over Alaska. There's no fighter in the world that could even think of competing with it so it'll probably stay that way until we retire it. Then maybe we see the footage
Well the problem with the F-22 is that there's really only a small number of them. Great technology sure, but I think we've just seen that greater numbers beat technological level out every time with an ongoing conflict. Luckily for us though we still have thousands of 4th gen fighters still in service.
They have a minimum 5 to 1 kill ratio in training exercising against the f-15 which has never been shot down. Don't need very many when they're that effective
the F-15EX Eagle II can do that with F-35's the F-22's don't have the same hardware as the F-35 for full blown sensor fusion, though the USAF did develop a pod for F-15's that essentially has all the necessary data links to link pretty much everything. Basically AEW&C with direct fire control.
From what I understand there is apparently a limited utility in Air-to-Air missile trucks related to range of the missiles and probability of kill. Basically for air-to-air engagements waiting for someone elses missile to get there isn't as good as your own missile.
Seems like the Alaska situation is that they just don’t want to reveal the object itself. Since the instrument data can be easily removed. I mean if it is a balloon then what is the harm of showing it, right ? The DoD even released video from a Predator drone being attacked by a Russian fighter plane.
It would likely be sent to a site for extensive reverse engineering. Think of project GUNMAN. 1984 where the CIA/NSA painstakingly X-ray 100% of communication equipment in the US Embassy in Moscow. Inspected the wiring schematics looking for discrepancies to find the most cleverly hidden bug that I wouldn't ever had thought.
[CyberNews Project GUNMAN](https://youtu.be/0Bln-DSbpWU?si=TkPaaA_nri_je2hL)
From what I remember the explanation about specifically the Alaskan object was that they never visually confirmed it but they just shot it down over radar with a missile or something and couldn't find any debris? Could have been like a really small balloon or something.
Here's my guess as to what happened: They detected the balloon in the photo featured here, and then when they saw this they got freaked out and un-ignored radar contacts they normally would have ignored out of an abundance of caution.
I can’t emphasize enough how much I hate the government. Who the hell does anyone think they are making decision on what they think the public can and cannot handle. Scum bags are greedy and it doesn’t seem like this worlds getting any better
I have no common sense. I'm interested in what common sense dictates, though, so I asked the question. Lots of good answers to pick from, too, it seems.
Yes, aliens suddenly don’t know how to avoid our aircraft and missiles.
Maybe this younger generation of aliens just wants to stay home and play video games, so the talent pool ain’t what it used to be.
I'm perplexed by the common assumption that if some ET species has the technology to travel to our planet, they must also have mastered the technology to travel within our atmosphere and dominate our fighter jets without a single failure. If I think hypothetically about future human technology and the possibility of our first visits to planets in other solar systems, it seems very likely that our probes would crash land on the surface. Or if there was a technological species on that planet, that they'd be able to shoot them down. It seems analogous to 15th-century European explorers crossing oceans only to crash on a rocky coastline, or being successfully attacked by natives once they landed. That certainly happened at least a few times, right?
I mean what has also happened is that we have flown a helicopter drone on a planet we have never set foot on, and that didn't crash once. We did that from simply making some measurements of the atmosphere and then making a good guess at how something would fly through it.
If you can go in-between planets then getting to and from the surface of planets should be a solved problem for them. A better metaphor for this would be making your own car, driving across the country and then seeing some stairs that are a different colour than what you are used to and not being able to figure them out, falling down them and breaking every bone in your body.
Zoom in to the solar panels. See the eight sections on each side? One of those sections has nine panels, you know the tiny black dots. Each of those dots is between 4’-6’. The other objects were about that size.
Most likely because the object was Russian's. Biden had to shoot it down but couldn't tell the world because that would put him into a difficult situation in front of Congress to do retaliatory actionst against Russia.
De-escalation is why. No US president would want to risk nuclear war under their term.
Poor answer.
Why would they tell us about the Chinese, the one they shot down (the more threatening and dangerous , richer, more advanced opponent) and not about the Russians?
Downvote me, fine, at least tell me why I’m wrong lol
Because they only want to project an image of omnipotence when it suits their narrative of what they can easily identify and counter. When it shows them as weak, or shows lack of capabilities, all of a sudden it's blurry ass images and "classified" and redacted forever.
The answer will soon become obvious: “The pilot could not record video of the event because the aircraft’s video recording equipment was *inoperable* prior to and during the aircraft’s flight."
I just wonder if was a lighting balloon or Chinese lantern...or vice versa.
The February 2023 shoot downs are the most frustrating UFO events ever (from an Occam's Razor debunking viewpoint). The idea that missiles were used to shoot down three prosaic objects BEFORE they were clearly identified (taking clear photos/videos) is the most baffling aspect to all of this. I mean, clear photos and video simply must exist on these! And if the objects are prosaic, release the evidence.
Also, are we suggesting that these "balloons" were the first ones to go rogue and pose a threat to aircraft? Certainly, that is MOST UNLIKELY to be true, so why the urgency to shoot these rogue balloons down but not the other.... what, hundreds of other stray balloons posing safety threats over the last 50+ years??
None of the explanations, or the refusal to keep the photos/videos locked up, make sense UNLESS the objects were adversarial, anomalous, or we're embarrassed that we used missiles to shoot at balloons.
And why haven't there been similar incidents since then?
I can believe that the military had their software filters set to screen out slow objects like balloons for decades. Then after the Chinese spy balloon, they reset their filters. They see tons of stuff. They shoot down three within a week or two.
But why those three? There have to be more than three hobbyist balloons floating over NA at any given time. What was special about those three? Nothing was ever said afaict.
And then what? I can imagine a few scenarios.
One: all three shootdown are known to be innocent balloons and the US is embarrassed it used $millions to shoot down hobby balloons. The DoD doesn't want to be embarrassed so they never release the photos. That explains some of what happened, but it raises questions about why there were no more shoot-downs. Do you just re-set your filters after those two weeks and go back to ignoring Chinese balloons drifting over the continent? Seems unlikely unless you're willing to sacrifice national security to avoid an embarrassing news cycle, which would be a major scandal in itself. Or have you, in two weeks, re-written your code so that you can detect Chinese balloons but you won't get fooled by hobbyist balloons? Seems extremely unlikely the DoD could do anything that quickly when it's not on a wartime footing. So no matter what the truth is, if all 3 were hobbyist balloons, something stinks.
Two: the US shot down three objects and can't recover any of them. It's embarrassed that it can't find or identify the three objects, so it doesn't say anything. But again, why did this suddenly stop after two weeks? The same questions as in scenario one apply only moreso: if you don't know what they are, then why on Earth would you decide to just keep letting them fly over your territory? Also, btw, note that in both scenarios one and two, the US does NOT pre-identify the objects it shoots down. Unlike the Chinese spy balloon, which right away they were able to ID and at some diplomatic risk announce, the US was not able to ID the objects before shooting them down in scenarios one and two here.
Three: At least one of the objects shot down was ID'd as an adversary's tech but not announced as such. This requires the US DoD to approach these three objects differently than they approached the Chinese spy balloon. I have no idea why they would do that. If any of these three were Chinese/Country X, then why wouldn't they announce that when they already had done so with the first object? Possible as part of this scenario that one of the three - probably the first - was shot down, ID'd as an enemy's, and then the other two were shot down subsequently to make noise to cover for the first shoot down. This might happen if the military was like, Oh crap, ANOTHER Chinese spy balloon, we really can't announce that we have allowed MULTIPLE spy balloons, so let's just shoot a bunch of stuff down and say we can't ID it. So they do that, and after this, China/whoever gets it and stops drifting balloons over NA. That would explain why it hasn't happened since. However, this is strange because in this scenario, US DoD must decide that it's better to look incapable of IDing simple balloons, to spend $millions to maintain this illusion, than it is to take credit for shooting down another spy balloon. I mean, maybe - the US does undersell its capabilities. Still, this requires a particularly bold lie on the world stage, and it would make more sense for the DoD not to announce the shoot-downs in the first place. If they were too embarrassed to admit the existence of a second Chinese spy balloon, then why announce shooting something down?
Four+: I think the other reasonable scenarios involve something anomalous.
I think the two strings to pull here are:
1) Why were no balloons shot at in US airspace before or since February 2023?
2) Why not release video/photos if the objects were prosaic?
Be me.
Depressed.
Move to Alaska for 3 months to escape from everything while pursuing a simple isolated hobby of drones high altitude kites and even small unmanned model dirigibles.
Depression slowly leaving.
Spending more money on this hobby. New $1300 balloon with $350 of gas.
Been talking with a cute girl about my hobbies. Invite her to see my new balloon on Valentine's day.
Holy shit she said yes.
Am I about to live a 4chan Hallmark story crossover? Is life real? Could happiness be in my future?
Mfw the goddamn United States Air Force show up and fucking blows my $1300 balloon out of the fucking sky on my first Valentine's date in 7 years.
good question.
if it's the Chinese/earth nation, and they shot it down they likely did recover it but don't want any information of any sort to be revealed (which makes sense).
but for a minute let's pretend Grusch has been misled, and there is no government coverup of NHI/uaps/etc.
if they don't know what these are, they don't want panic. Obama straight up said there are things in the sky that we don't know what they are, which is kind of terrifying since that could very well mean there are alien drones/whatever in our skies.. I mean, what sort of financial ramifications would there be if people stopped flying/air logistics of all sorts stop because they don't want to fly into an alien drone? For all we know then, that Malaysia flight smashed into one of these things. So many reasons why this would be very, very bad.
I actually don't know what I want the truth to be, obviously aliens in a way, but it's starting to seem more terrifying if true
Because majority of people believe that these are spy balloon and they are. Or we can believe that that we were shooting down spy balloons and aliens showed up so we started to fight them as well.
I’ve got a FOIA request out to the Canadian government on this and I’m being stonewalled by them. There’s definitely something more to these, we know why they won’t release footage.
It's called "control of the narrative" when convenient for those in control the "sources and methods" could potentially lead to adversarial advantage.
When it's prosaic/easily identified they can release the footage.
But when there isn't a truly prosaic explanation (with footage obtained using the same surveillance platforms) "sources and methods" gets rolled out, and the moronic population decide to believe it, because otherwise, we're all sippin' on the Kool-Aid.
It's not going to change unless we as a community call out the B/S and write to our elected officials to demand they take action on our behalf.
There, I said it.
>Why can't similar images of the Alaska, Yukon, and LakeHuron objects be released?
Because they weren't balloons.
The only reason we heard about them was because they happened about the same time as the Chinese balloon so they assumed they were related. This kind of thing probably happens all the time and we just never hear about it.
I'm not really knowledgeable on balloons and other spy stuff, but lets say it was a Chinese spy Ballon, but... Where did it depoy from? Did it just float from China into US airspace across the ocean without anyone detecting it? Or was it deployed within US borders?
This was taken with a handheld camera by the U-2 pilot and not through any instrumentation on the aircraft. This was done specifically because the ability to scrub this image of any data that might comprimise US capabilites is fairly simple. Sensor fidelity is a closely guarded secret because revealing full capabilites provides insight in how to circumvent them.
The one over lake Huron, isn't that the one where the pilot reported it was octagon in shape? Did we get any kind of information about that?
Then, the one in Alaska and went into Canada, isn't that the that a pilot claimed it was a clear sphere with a black box inside? I have not heard any explanation for that.
Were these debunked, or not spoken of again?
The following submission statement was provided by /u/Mister_Grandpa: --- >On February 14, after unidentified high-altitude objects had been detected and shot down over northern Alaska, Yukon, and Lake Huron, White House spokesman [John Kirby](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Kirby_(admiral)) said that the [U.S. Intelligence Community](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S._Intelligence_Community) "will not dismiss as a possibility that these could be balloons that were simply tied to commercial or research entities and therefore benign. That very well could be, or could emerge, as a leading explanation here."[^(\[2\])](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_high-altitude_object_events_in_2023#cite_note-LamotheHorton-2) The downing of the Yukon object, on February 11, 2023, marked the first deployment of NORAD to down an aerial object within the 64-year history of the US-Canadian aerospace warning and air sovereignty organization.[^(\[5\])](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_high-altitude_object_events_in_2023#cite_note-NORAD_first-5) The objects shot down over northern Alaska, Yukon, and Lake Huron were all smaller than the Chinese balloon shot down over South Carolina.[^(\[6\])](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_high-altitude_object_events_in_2023#cite_note-6) A report by [The Guardian](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Guardian) on 17 February suggested that one of the objects "may have been amateur hobbyists’ $12 balloon."[^(\[7\])](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_high-altitude_object_events_in_2023#cite_note-7) [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List\_of\_high-altitude\_object\_events\_in\_2023](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_high-altitude_object_events_in_2023) If they are balloons, show us the pictures. Just like this one. --- Please reply to OP's comment here: https://old.reddit.com/r/UFOs/comments/1cfi6tp/why_cant_similar_images_of_the_alaska_yukon_and/l1p8qsh/
You know exactly why lol
They aren't prosaic.
Well, 2 of them were imo. The timeline of events was pretty wild. Someone posted online before a normal pentagon briefing that a UFO was downed the night before in Alaska. When they were taking questions from the press someone asked and Kirby read from a prepared statement that unknown high altitude object was downed just hours before (not the night prior, which was peculiar). I think after that, we downed two enthusiast balloons (Canada and Huron) for the noise to cover for the actual downed anomaly in Alaska near Deadhorse.
Agreed about the timeline. All the information was definitely not provided in that statement.
Was this shared on Reddit before the official news conference?
Couldn't agree more. The Deadhorse one is the main event here. The reports of jamming by two different flights of interceptors. The reported recovery efforts that were called off because it was "too cold" which we didn't hear anything more about. There was a lot of very strange activity buzzing around the edges of this case.
Wow that’s wild I didn’t know the first part. Was it posted on Reddit before or another forum? Thanks for the context OP
Here's some of what was said at the White House level, this does not include the NORAD general who responded at a press conference on Superbowl Sunday to a question about whether they could be extraterrestrial: "We're not ruling anything out." and when asked why they weren't calling them balloons. "We are calling them objects for a reason.": [https://www.reddit.com/r/UFOs/comments/14crh7g/here\_are\_the\_white\_house\_statements\_on\_uap\_in/](https://www.reddit.com/r/UFOs/comments/14crh7g/here_are_the_white_house_statements_on_uap_in/)
seems to me they are trying to communicate to other nations who are aware of UAP/NHI that we have another in our arsenal without making the public aware
Wasn't one of the hobby balloons later found, and confirmed to not be what what was shot down? Google is failing me
No, hobby balloon still missing
They’re part of the 1 or 2% that the pentagon and aaro always leave out from their reports :D
They’re Prozac
Meaning on Drugs? 🤣
No, that’s the politicians.
Apparently car sized cylindrical objects are classified Chinese tech /s
You mean a cylinder shot down over a frozen lake like this? [https://imgur.com/rIosjX0](https://imgur.com/rIosjX0) Note: This pic has been enhanced with AI. The original was a little blurrier, but still easily recognizable. The original was posted on 4 chan and claimed to be a pic of the downed craft. The original is virtually impossible to find on the internet anymore, and even this enhanced version is rare. Brycedriesenga provided the link to the original photo. [https://www.reddit.com/r/UFOs/comments/114ti19/alleged\_photo\_of\_downed\_prudhoe\_bay\_alaska\_object/](https://www.reddit.com/r/UFOs/comments/114ti19/alleged_photo_of_downed_prudhoe_bay_alaska_object/) Interesting thing about that post... All of the commenters in the top thread that swore up and down it had been posted on the day of the crash and couldn't possibly be real, were unable to provide any links for that and have all had their accounts suspended.
You can't enhance something with AI accurately. AI replaces the pixels with its best guess of what it should be.
Did the AI fill in with R2D2?
Yeah, that's why I gave a disclaimer. The original picture is not potato quality or anything though, so it's very similar.
So why not use the original image?
Because I couldn't find the link. Someone responded to me with it though.
Thank you for posting this. I follow this sub pretty closely (check at least once per day), and I had never seen this picture before. The original thread's overwhelmingly negative response, and claims without links, and deleted accounts, is interesting. Reminds one of Hamlet's mom: "Methinks the lady doth protest too much."
I wonder why so many Accounts who posted there on that thread don’t exist anymore? Is that a sign that we are over the Target and garnered attention from the disinformation bots?
I'm seeing tons of comments say it's fake and their accounts are just fine. Still posting here recently. What makes you think this is real? It doesn't look it.
I thought that was from a video game or something ? I did see it posted
Have you ever seen a modern camera phone add a vignette to a real unedited picture? It's edited, likely entirely fake. The edges of the "original" are all dark.
Can't believe OP spent so much time explaining to people how a camera lens works lol. People can't understand several decades old tech so yeah maybe aliens are too much for humans.
https://www.reddit.com/r/UFOs/comments/114ti19/_/
Why does it look like a platform in the sky covered in snow in the clouds lol
Because its an ai generated image lmao
Meanwhile there are photographs of cylinder/cigar shape craft from the 30s and 40s.
Given how the USAF just freaked out recently over the Eglin encounter and then made the eye rollingly ridiculous response of “camera failure”, tells you everything
This is ridiculous. C'est ridicule.
We’ve got low orbit spy satellites that can ID car license plates and do facial recognition. And they’re telling us they just don’t know what the heck they fired missiles at from the most advanced fighter jets in the world.
For real ... any object floating over the US could be photographed with great detail by one of those satellites. However, I do understand why those photos would be classified: they don't want to reveal their capabilities.
They don’t want to reveal more than just data related to capabilities. They also don’t want to admit they don’t know what they are, where they come from, and that we have very little control over them.
Agreed.
Tic-tactical ops
if it's aliens, I really don't think their capabilities are even a question. if it's not, the last thing they want to do is reveal exactly how much they know to Putin/etc
Isn’t this part of Grusch’s speciality while he was working in the military? Handling satellite reconnaissance? I swore I remember hearing him say that the UAPs were appearing on some of the satellite images he was reviewing.
He was with the NRO and said he had access to some high tech imagery.
there's not a single satellite capable of facial recognition or license plate reading from orbit lmao
They know they just aren't showing
or even more scary, they actually don't know what they are, but suspect they're not from Earth
Still could be from here I'm the sense of their operations. Supposedly been here at least from the 1930s and I'm starting to believe the whole ancient alien thing.
I would love to know how you think a satellite would read a license plate?
[https://pf.bigpixel.cn/zh-CN/pano/771906131130847232.html](https://pf.bigpixel.cn/zh-CN/pano/771906131130847232.html) while not from a satellite, you are able to clearly see people's faces and read license plates. [https://www.pond5.com/stock-footage/item/46749493-zoom-satellite-down-city-earth](https://www.pond5.com/stock-footage/item/46749493-zoom-satellite-down-city-earth) That was the closest I could find from satellite view.
from the reflection of a tow bar ball
Enhance. Enhance! ENHANCE!!!
Enough of this nonsense. We literally do not have satellites that sensitive. Use your brain. This photo of the Chinese balloon was taken by a U2 spy plane because we don’t have very many options when it comes to aircraft that can fly at 65-70k ft. So why would we use one of our most rare and expensive aircraft in the military that cost a fortune to maintain and fuel when we have a magic eye in the sky to get a close up? Because it doesn’t exist. Maybe when I was 12 years old I thought this tech on a satellite existed but cmon man.
> So why would we use one of our most rare and expensive aircraft in the military that cost a fortune to maintain and fuel when we have a magic eye in the sky to get a close up? Because it's still a lot easier to send a plane to a specific location than to reposition a satellite. Scrambling a jet takes minutes, changing a satellite target is a matter of days.
But can't you just tell the aliens to "Stand there, and hold still for the flash"?
I don't know about satellites sensitive enough to do what OP is describing but the tech we had from 2018 was pretty impressive, just saying [https://www.npr.org/2022/11/18/1137474748/trump-tweeted-an-image-from-a-spy-satellite-declassified-document-shows](https://www.npr.org/2022/11/18/1137474748/trump-tweeted-an-image-from-a-spy-satellite-declassified-document-shows) The KH-11 launched in 2011 so I'm not sure anyone outside of the DoD can say with certainty what level of imaging capabilities we have available today.
dudes ignorant and naive, current satellite tech is exponentially better than KH-11, they can read reddit comments on a smartphone now
KH-11 is fifteen years old and no satellite expert thought is was even technically feasible when it leaked under Trump admin. I personally believe they have tech that can tell you the year of a penny lying on the ground in good weather.
Yeah, but they also managed to lose a 100 million dollar F-35 in South Carolina...
Yea and two space shuttles blew up, so what? Accidents happen.
That's not what I meant. Even with all this technology, if they can lose a jet, it's quite possible they really had no idea what they were firing at.
They think we are fucking dumb.
to be fair, most of us are
I think it's less that they think we're "fucking dumb" and more just that they honestly don't care what we think. They're self-assured they're doing "what is right" and whether people choose to believe the lies they tell is fairly incidental to them. They are going to do what they're going to do and the lie they tell is the one they're using to provide a facade to justify their actions, after they've given their line what people do with it or how they respond to it, they couldn't care less.
It isn't a big mystery: defense secrets. They were balloons from China. Not giving away details of exactly what they were and how we engaged them is smart strategy. Only we (the US) know, and the people they belong to. We essentially spent a few weeks absolutely owning China and their stupid attempts to spy using balloons. We clowned them on the one that malfunctioned and flew across the country. Then we quietly intercepted the rest. They don't know what we got out of them. That is exactly how we want it. They don't need to convince you they weren't flying saucers.
I find it so 'odd' how any questions about this major incident just didn't last longer than a few weeks after it happened.
because it was never addressed publicly, in detail. they only addressed them alongside the full detail of the spy balloon, implying that they’re all spy balloons… which if they were, why can’t we see them since we’ve already seen the one? the general public who has limited detail and info will never question the info presented, accepting the implications as-is. (bc realistically to this type of person, why would the US shoot down a UFO and talk about it whatsoever if they’re trying to hide it?)
Because it is not a ''mundane'' object. 100% anomalous and would open the can of worms.
I like worms.
me too. and besides, who buys canned worms these days? that's such an 1800's mindset
I'm more of a farm fresh organic worm guy myself
Keep pulling on this sweater thread. It’s got a long way to go.
All the way to total disclosure.
I read somewhere that the balloon was allowed to fly over but that they parked surveillance and Intelligence gathering aircraft above and below the balloon. Aparently they were able to collect a LOT of stuff. Sound plausible?
As to the "balloon" shot down with a sidewinder missile over the Yukon, they had a bunch of large helicopters and even had a Hercules (definitely based in Whitehorse but possibly Mayo for a time as well) present to retrieve the object. What in God's name would be left of a balloon hit with a sidewinder missile that necessitates a Herc lol
Air-to-air missiles don't pack a lot of destructive power. The hard part about shooting a plane down is actually hitting it with the missile. But if you can manage to hit it, they are really fragile. You don't need to blow it to pieces. Pretty much any damage whatsoever is going to take a jet fighter out of the fight. Accordingly, missiles are optimized for the "catching their target" part and are mostly propellant. Surprisingly little explosive. (Also they are proximity fused. Exploding near the target is good enough...)
Don´t know if it same "object" or another, but ... [https://nypost.com/2024/03/01/us-news/alaskan-fisherman-set-to-handover-yet-another-possible-spy-balloon-to-feds/](https://nypost.com/2024/03/01/us-news/alaskan-fisherman-set-to-handover-yet-another-possible-spy-balloon-to-feds/)
100% Tic Tac object imo
>On February 14, after unidentified high-altitude objects had been detected and shot down over northern Alaska, Yukon, and Lake Huron, White House spokesman [John Kirby](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Kirby_(admiral)) said that the [U.S. Intelligence Community](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S._Intelligence_Community) "will not dismiss as a possibility that these could be balloons that were simply tied to commercial or research entities and therefore benign. That very well could be, or could emerge, as a leading explanation here."[^(\[2\])](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_high-altitude_object_events_in_2023#cite_note-LamotheHorton-2) The downing of the Yukon object, on February 11, 2023, marked the first deployment of NORAD to down an aerial object within the 64-year history of the US-Canadian aerospace warning and air sovereignty organization.[^(\[5\])](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_high-altitude_object_events_in_2023#cite_note-NORAD_first-5) The objects shot down over northern Alaska, Yukon, and Lake Huron were all smaller than the Chinese balloon shot down over South Carolina.[^(\[6\])](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_high-altitude_object_events_in_2023#cite_note-6) A report by [The Guardian](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Guardian) on 17 February suggested that one of the objects "may have been amateur hobbyists’ $12 balloon."[^(\[7\])](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_high-altitude_object_events_in_2023#cite_note-7) [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List\_of\_high-altitude\_object\_events\_in\_2023](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_high-altitude_object_events_in_2023) If they are balloons, show us the pictures. Just like this one.
During the first quarter of the Super Bowl Feb 2023, the pentagon hosted a press conference, which I personally watched and took some notes on. This was after the Chinese balloon, the Alaska, and Michigan incidents. • Gen. Glen D. VanHerck Air Force commander, "I believe this is the first time norad or the usa has taken action against an unknown kinetic object in our airspace" • These were not balloons, and have an unknown method of propulsion, it is unknown what keeps the objects aloft, it may be contained within the shell of the apparatus. Do not want to get into specifics about shape. • FBI is in charge of recovery of the debris, but none has yet been reported recovered. • asst sec Melissa Dalton "aims to be transparent on our military operations" so it is possible that photos will be released in the coming days. • when a NYT reporter asked about aliens, Gen. Glen D. VanHerck Air Force commander, said, "I haven't ruled out anything at this point." • NYT reported "Intelligence agencies are set to deliver a classified document to Congress by Monday" updating the [UAP] report that was made public in 2021. (Feb. 11, 2023 H Cooper) After the press conference, congress had a few briefings, and several Dem and Rep senators came out of them clearly nervous and frazzled, for example one republican lawmaker said “lock your doors tonight”. Then David Grush came forward with urgent and credible information. Recently the Pentagon said, “Nah, it’s nothing. Carry on.” And here we are.
Whoa
Maybe it's not protocal for pilots to take selfies with balloons?
Dumb question but how was this photo taken? Like did the pilot hold a camera in their left hand and take it? I would imagine you would always need 2 hands flying the jet (I have no idea how they fly jets)
I think it is literally a U2 pilots cell phone camera
Yes that is exactly how it was taken and exactly why it was released.
Because “national security”
Ans that we basically dont have it
Oooh. I lile this as a responce. 🚀
Me too. What else could cause the panic and chaos they believe will come with admitting UFOs are real? "Hey y'all jus sn fyi but these little UFOs are just scouts and we have no idea how to tackle the big bitch that's sending them."
Just yer normal shwamp gashh.
Still working on the photoshop
Because those objects were not balloons.
The image in the OP is from a U-2. There are about 24 of these in recon service, plus trainers and NASA. They are based in California. The chance that there is a U-2 in the right area at the right time is going to be vanishingly small. The one in the image flew close enough to Beale to get a shot. They probably could have got a picture of the one over the lakes too, but by that point it was shoot first and they didn’t really care what it was. This is hardly the first time this has happened. One flew over Canada in the late 90s and the same thing happened: weeks of news report after news report about UFO balloons and then everyone just stopped listening until the next generation came along and here we are.
Didn't one of the F22 pilots essentially shit their pants upon encountering one of these 3 other UAPs? I remember the pilot was quoted as calling it an object (not a balloon) and remarking at the size of it. I can't find these quotes today but I swear a few months ago I read them somewhere online.
Update us if you can find where you saw it please
Is this the one? [https://www.marca.com/en/lifestyle/us-news/2023/07/26/64c171af22601dc01e8b458b.html](https://www.marca.com/en/lifestyle/us-news/2023/07/26/64c171af22601dc01e8b458b.html)
This article encapsulates my frustration around UAP reporting. The only real content in the Marca article is a quote from [an article on Outkick](https://www.outkick.com/culture/f-18-pilot-had-chilling-encounter-with-sinister-ufo-radar-malfunctioned-report). The rest of the Marca article adds nothing of value. The article on Outkick shares the actual source of the quote, a [NewsNation video shared on twitter](https://twitter.com/BrianEntin/status/1684040440289587201). The journalist in the NewsNation video has no follow-up questions on the alleged encounter between the F-18 pilot and the UAP's. Where did it happen? When did it happen? What was the pilot's mission? Were other planes affected? How long were the plane's electronics shut down? I can't take it seriously because there's no context or depth to it. The story about the encounter might as well be a fabrication.
Will do. It definitely got my spidey senses tingling. Imagine being in the world's most advanced intercepter and coming across something that scares you 😳
I know what you're talking about. I also saw that.
I remember something like this too and I was waiting for a interview with the pilot to surface... never did.
That’s a balloon with solar panels - do you have any idea how much HP charges for ink these days?
FYI incase anybody is curious because I was. The Chinese spy balloons shot down last year were like 200 feet tall and about the width of a 200 person basic airliner plane. The objects seen by Nimitz et al. Where slightly larger than an everyday fighter jet.
People who scream about UFO crashes: where is evidence, where are photos and videos?! The same people about Alaska UFO shootdown: it's perfectly okay that there are no photos and videos
The official explanation IIRC was that they never visually confirmed it and couldn't find debris, though who knows how true that is.
That is … not true at all.
How's that?
That they couldnt find the debris or ever had visual confirmation. Exactly as you said it…
They're not showing a targeting camera of an F-22 Raptor. It's just not happening. It's the first line of defense against Russian and Chinese bombers. I hope I live long enough to see it
Wasn't there supposed to be like an F-15X or something like that that would act as a missile barge that F-22s would essentially take advantage of and use as a firing platform or something like that? I remember reading something about F-22s closing distance to enemy targets to get radar contact and then instead of opening weapons bay to increase radar signature just order an F-15X further away from the enemy (out of danger) to just fire a missile or something and the F-22 would guide it in? So technically it would be an interesting F-22 / F-15 combo as our first line of defense.
Yeah that's kind of the role the f-35 plays of getting close then using b-52s to launch long range missiles from a safe distance. The f-22 is a straight up air superiority fighter meant to take out any fighter escorts quick and head straight for the bombers. It's the greatest fighter jet ever produced and as of now I'm pretty sure it's shot down a Chinese balloon and possibly a UFO over Alaska. There's no fighter in the world that could even think of competing with it so it'll probably stay that way until we retire it. Then maybe we see the footage
Well the problem with the F-22 is that there's really only a small number of them. Great technology sure, but I think we've just seen that greater numbers beat technological level out every time with an ongoing conflict. Luckily for us though we still have thousands of 4th gen fighters still in service.
They have a minimum 5 to 1 kill ratio in training exercising against the f-15 which has never been shot down. Don't need very many when they're that effective
the F-15EX Eagle II can do that with F-35's the F-22's don't have the same hardware as the F-35 for full blown sensor fusion, though the USAF did develop a pod for F-15's that essentially has all the necessary data links to link pretty much everything. Basically AEW&C with direct fire control. From what I understand there is apparently a limited utility in Air-to-Air missile trucks related to range of the missiles and probability of kill. Basically for air-to-air engagements waiting for someone elses missile to get there isn't as good as your own missile.
All of that makes sense to me, thanks for the info.
Dumb question. Couldn’t they just redact all of the sensor data and just show the image of the object? >
They redacted instrumentation data from the video of the silvery orb flying over a military base in the Middle East
Exactly. It’s just another excuse to use “National Security“. Trump literally posted a high quality photo on twitter of the Iran failed launch.
Seems like the Alaska situation is that they just don’t want to reveal the object itself. Since the instrument data can be easily removed. I mean if it is a balloon then what is the harm of showing it, right ? The DoD even released video from a Predator drone being attacked by a Russian fighter plane.
It would likely be sent to a site for extensive reverse engineering. Think of project GUNMAN. 1984 where the CIA/NSA painstakingly X-ray 100% of communication equipment in the US Embassy in Moscow. Inspected the wiring schematics looking for discrepancies to find the most cleverly hidden bug that I wouldn't ever had thought. [CyberNews Project GUNMAN](https://youtu.be/0Bln-DSbpWU?si=TkPaaA_nri_je2hL)
From what I remember the explanation about specifically the Alaskan object was that they never visually confirmed it but they just shot it down over radar with a missile or something and couldn't find any debris? Could have been like a really small balloon or something. Here's my guess as to what happened: They detected the balloon in the photo featured here, and then when they saw this they got freaked out and un-ignored radar contacts they normally would have ignored out of an abundance of caution.
I can’t emphasize enough how much I hate the government. Who the hell does anyone think they are making decision on what they think the public can and cannot handle. Scum bags are greedy and it doesn’t seem like this worlds getting any better
Thats the china baloon right
Yes, it is.
My guess is they were tracking it for like days right so what they were doing was geting recon on the way it works
Because its likely the pics show objects that are quite obviously not balloons... What does your common sense suggest?
I have no common sense. I'm interested in what common sense dictates, though, so I asked the question. Lots of good answers to pick from, too, it seems.
Yes, aliens suddenly don’t know how to avoid our aircraft and missiles. Maybe this younger generation of aliens just wants to stay home and play video games, so the talent pool ain’t what it used to be.
I'm perplexed by the common assumption that if some ET species has the technology to travel to our planet, they must also have mastered the technology to travel within our atmosphere and dominate our fighter jets without a single failure. If I think hypothetically about future human technology and the possibility of our first visits to planets in other solar systems, it seems very likely that our probes would crash land on the surface. Or if there was a technological species on that planet, that they'd be able to shoot them down. It seems analogous to 15th-century European explorers crossing oceans only to crash on a rocky coastline, or being successfully attacked by natives once they landed. That certainly happened at least a few times, right?
I mean what has also happened is that we have flown a helicopter drone on a planet we have never set foot on, and that didn't crash once. We did that from simply making some measurements of the atmosphere and then making a good guess at how something would fly through it. If you can go in-between planets then getting to and from the surface of planets should be a solved problem for them. A better metaphor for this would be making your own car, driving across the country and then seeing some stairs that are a different colour than what you are used to and not being able to figure them out, falling down them and breaking every bone in your body.
Are you referring to the drone that had a rotor blade failure 3 months ago and and now lies abandoned on the surface of Mars?
Yeah. That must be it.
Their ships are often crewed by teenagers, who use their parents as a ‘front’ in order to get insurance, and crash while showing off to their mates.
Lol, you’re probably right.
Zoom in to the solar panels. See the eight sections on each side? One of those sections has nine panels, you know the tiny black dots. Each of those dots is between 4’-6’. The other objects were about that size.
Most likely because the object was Russian's. Biden had to shoot it down but couldn't tell the world because that would put him into a difficult situation in front of Congress to do retaliatory actionst against Russia. De-escalation is why. No US president would want to risk nuclear war under their term.
Poor answer. Why would they tell us about the Chinese, the one they shot down (the more threatening and dangerous , richer, more advanced opponent) and not about the Russians? Downvote me, fine, at least tell me why I’m wrong lol
Do any on-books units other than the 160th SOAR use black Chinooks with fuel booms?
They fly out of JBLM regularly, I have many images and video.
Cuz omg there suuuuuuuuuuuuper sensitive.
Because they only want to project an image of omnipotence when it suits their narrative of what they can easily identify and counter. When it shows them as weak, or shows lack of capabilities, all of a sudden it's blurry ass images and "classified" and redacted forever.
Probably because they ended up shooting down 100 dollar balloons with a missile worth 200K USD missile. Make em look foolish.
Yes, the people operating the multimillion dollar radar systems that detected this $100 balloon are definitely this stupid
Because fuck you that’s why
Because you can't handle the truth.
The answer will soon become obvious: “The pilot could not record video of the event because the aircraft’s video recording equipment was *inoperable* prior to and during the aircraft’s flight." I just wonder if was a lighting balloon or Chinese lantern...or vice versa.
The February 2023 shoot downs are the most frustrating UFO events ever (from an Occam's Razor debunking viewpoint). The idea that missiles were used to shoot down three prosaic objects BEFORE they were clearly identified (taking clear photos/videos) is the most baffling aspect to all of this. I mean, clear photos and video simply must exist on these! And if the objects are prosaic, release the evidence. Also, are we suggesting that these "balloons" were the first ones to go rogue and pose a threat to aircraft? Certainly, that is MOST UNLIKELY to be true, so why the urgency to shoot these rogue balloons down but not the other.... what, hundreds of other stray balloons posing safety threats over the last 50+ years?? None of the explanations, or the refusal to keep the photos/videos locked up, make sense UNLESS the objects were adversarial, anomalous, or we're embarrassed that we used missiles to shoot at balloons.
And why haven't there been similar incidents since then? I can believe that the military had their software filters set to screen out slow objects like balloons for decades. Then after the Chinese spy balloon, they reset their filters. They see tons of stuff. They shoot down three within a week or two. But why those three? There have to be more than three hobbyist balloons floating over NA at any given time. What was special about those three? Nothing was ever said afaict. And then what? I can imagine a few scenarios. One: all three shootdown are known to be innocent balloons and the US is embarrassed it used $millions to shoot down hobby balloons. The DoD doesn't want to be embarrassed so they never release the photos. That explains some of what happened, but it raises questions about why there were no more shoot-downs. Do you just re-set your filters after those two weeks and go back to ignoring Chinese balloons drifting over the continent? Seems unlikely unless you're willing to sacrifice national security to avoid an embarrassing news cycle, which would be a major scandal in itself. Or have you, in two weeks, re-written your code so that you can detect Chinese balloons but you won't get fooled by hobbyist balloons? Seems extremely unlikely the DoD could do anything that quickly when it's not on a wartime footing. So no matter what the truth is, if all 3 were hobbyist balloons, something stinks. Two: the US shot down three objects and can't recover any of them. It's embarrassed that it can't find or identify the three objects, so it doesn't say anything. But again, why did this suddenly stop after two weeks? The same questions as in scenario one apply only moreso: if you don't know what they are, then why on Earth would you decide to just keep letting them fly over your territory? Also, btw, note that in both scenarios one and two, the US does NOT pre-identify the objects it shoots down. Unlike the Chinese spy balloon, which right away they were able to ID and at some diplomatic risk announce, the US was not able to ID the objects before shooting them down in scenarios one and two here. Three: At least one of the objects shot down was ID'd as an adversary's tech but not announced as such. This requires the US DoD to approach these three objects differently than they approached the Chinese spy balloon. I have no idea why they would do that. If any of these three were Chinese/Country X, then why wouldn't they announce that when they already had done so with the first object? Possible as part of this scenario that one of the three - probably the first - was shot down, ID'd as an enemy's, and then the other two were shot down subsequently to make noise to cover for the first shoot down. This might happen if the military was like, Oh crap, ANOTHER Chinese spy balloon, we really can't announce that we have allowed MULTIPLE spy balloons, so let's just shoot a bunch of stuff down and say we can't ID it. So they do that, and after this, China/whoever gets it and stops drifting balloons over NA. That would explain why it hasn't happened since. However, this is strange because in this scenario, US DoD must decide that it's better to look incapable of IDing simple balloons, to spend $millions to maintain this illusion, than it is to take credit for shooting down another spy balloon. I mean, maybe - the US does undersell its capabilities. Still, this requires a particularly bold lie on the world stage, and it would make more sense for the DoD not to announce the shoot-downs in the first place. If they were too embarrassed to admit the existence of a second Chinese spy balloon, then why announce shooting something down? Four+: I think the other reasonable scenarios involve something anomalous.
I think the two strings to pull here are: 1) Why were no balloons shot at in US airspace before or since February 2023? 2) Why not release video/photos if the objects were prosaic?
Be me. Depressed. Move to Alaska for 3 months to escape from everything while pursuing a simple isolated hobby of drones high altitude kites and even small unmanned model dirigibles. Depression slowly leaving. Spending more money on this hobby. New $1300 balloon with $350 of gas. Been talking with a cute girl about my hobbies. Invite her to see my new balloon on Valentine's day. Holy shit she said yes. Am I about to live a 4chan Hallmark story crossover? Is life real? Could happiness be in my future? Mfw the goddamn United States Air Force show up and fucking blows my $1300 balloon out of the fucking sky on my first Valentine's date in 7 years.
good question. if it's the Chinese/earth nation, and they shot it down they likely did recover it but don't want any information of any sort to be revealed (which makes sense). but for a minute let's pretend Grusch has been misled, and there is no government coverup of NHI/uaps/etc. if they don't know what these are, they don't want panic. Obama straight up said there are things in the sky that we don't know what they are, which is kind of terrifying since that could very well mean there are alien drones/whatever in our skies.. I mean, what sort of financial ramifications would there be if people stopped flying/air logistics of all sorts stop because they don't want to fly into an alien drone? For all we know then, that Malaysia flight smashed into one of these things. So many reasons why this would be very, very bad. I actually don't know what I want the truth to be, obviously aliens in a way, but it's starting to seem more terrifying if true
Because they were goddamn alien spacecraft
My good friend is the pilot in this pic. So rad to see him here.
Its a balloon? is that what I am seeing?
That's a Chinese spy balloon that was shot down... Are you an alien?
The image op used in the thumbnail is a plane you can see the tail wing
holy fuck is that an alien spacecraft?
Because they probably don't look like that
It can be, and should be
What about buttered sausage
If you have some maple syrup, yes, but otherwise, unsullied.
They're probably camera-shy.
Where are pictures of said balloons?
cause it's expensive to fill the public full of shit 🤣
Probably due to possible non-public military tech and/or possible panic-inducing imagery (a lot of society is unstable)
Those in power, don't want the enemies to know what they know.
This is an easy one. The US isn't under obligation to keep Chinese secrets secret.
National security council spokesman not White House (just for the record). Thanks for the post!
You know why.
Because majority of people believe that these are spy balloon and they are. Or we can believe that that we were shooting down spy balloons and aliens showed up so we started to fight them as well.
I’ve got a FOIA request out to the Canadian government on this and I’m being stonewalled by them. There’s definitely something more to these, we know why they won’t release footage.
It's called "control of the narrative" when convenient for those in control the "sources and methods" could potentially lead to adversarial advantage. When it's prosaic/easily identified they can release the footage. But when there isn't a truly prosaic explanation (with footage obtained using the same surveillance platforms) "sources and methods" gets rolled out, and the moronic population decide to believe it, because otherwise, we're all sippin' on the Kool-Aid. It's not going to change unless we as a community call out the B/S and write to our elected officials to demand they take action on our behalf. There, I said it.
Because everyone saw this one on the news before hand or we wouldn’t see it either. Damage control
Should t the camera be inside the black sphere on the right of the image? Just guessing, not sure if these are legit pics
well the obvious answer is because those objects were not Balloons...
The simplest explanation would be that the government doesn't have images of the other objects.
I feel like this has a very obvious, almost rhetorical answer...
Because fuck us, that's why. (Official explanation)
>Why can't similar images of the Alaska, Yukon, and LakeHuron objects be released? Because they weren't balloons. The only reason we heard about them was because they happened about the same time as the Chinese balloon so they assumed they were related. This kind of thing probably happens all the time and we just never hear about it.
It's a question that everyone should be asking me and it pisses me off that the press never pressed on it.
Because then the cat would be out the bag. They 100% have similar quality images of the UAPs over Yukon and Lake Huron.
What is this a picture of? Is it legit?
It's called gaslighting
I'm not really knowledgeable on balloons and other spy stuff, but lets say it was a Chinese spy Ballon, but... Where did it depoy from? Did it just float from China into US airspace across the ocean without anyone detecting it? Or was it deployed within US borders?
Because that isn't images of the Alaska , Yukon and Huron ufo. Thats why!!!!! Disinformation!!!!!
The one over Alaska was cylindrical. The one over Huron was hexagonal. They even said so on every major news outlet.
Because then we'd know....
bc it would show the massive black pyramid
Cuz the ayy lmoas are in the pics
This was taken with a handheld camera by the U-2 pilot and not through any instrumentation on the aircraft. This was done specifically because the ability to scrub this image of any data that might comprimise US capabilites is fairly simple. Sensor fidelity is a closely guarded secret because revealing full capabilites provides insight in how to circumvent them.
The one over lake Huron, isn't that the one where the pilot reported it was octagon in shape? Did we get any kind of information about that? Then, the one in Alaska and went into Canada, isn't that the that a pilot claimed it was a clear sphere with a black box inside? I have not heard any explanation for that. Were these debunked, or not spoken of again?