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Case · C-091

Alaska: a cylindrical object shot down at 40,000 feet

Northern coast of Alaska, off Deadhorse (Prudhoe Bay) · United States · Feb 10, 2023

In flight Military witnesses Radar

Unexplained

What happened
Detected by U.S. radars on the evening of February 9, 2023, an unmanned object the size of a small car was flying at about 40,000 feet above northeastern Alaska; for the Pentagon it was a risk to civilian traffic. On February 10, on the president's orders, an F-22 from Elmendorf-Richardson base shot it down and the remains fell onto the frozen sea off Deadhorse. Military personnel, the Coast Guard and the FBI took part in the searches; according to Northern Command, cited by the BBC on February 18, the systematic searches had found no debris and were suspended.
Proposed explanation
On February 14, 2023, the White House indicated on a preliminary basis, as the main explanation for the three downed objects, balloons tied to commercial or research entities, hence benign; President Biden later said that this one was probably a civilian balloon. Without significant debris the object has not been identified with certainty.
Official investigation
NORAD and U.S. Northern Command; Department of Defense; National Security Council; FBI and Coast Guard (searches)

Official documents

  1. Governor Dunleavy Issues Statement on Unidentified Object Shot Down Over Alaska · Office of the Governor of Alaska · Feb 10, 2023

Sources

  1. NPR, “'High-altitude object' shot down by military over Alaska”, February 10, 2023 (press)
  2. NBC News, “White House says a leading explanation for the 3 downed unidentified objects is that they were commercial or benign”, February 14, 2023 (press)
  3. BBC News, “US and Canada abandon search for three flying objects shot down”, February 18, 2023 (press)
  4. Wikipedia – 2023 Alaska high-altitude object (other)

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