After the hysteria of the Pentagon shooting down multiple ‘UFOs’ last week, it turns out at least one of the items could be a harmless weather balloon.
The U.S. military scrambled fighter jets to shoot four objects out of the sky.
One of those objects may be a local hobby club's $12 balloon.
Yes, really.
"Please tell me the white house did not spend the month of February scrambling jets to fire $400,000 missiles at the local hobby club's TWELVE DOLLAR BALLOON," Edward Snowden commented.
please tell me the white house did not spend the month of february scrambling jets to fire $400,000 missiles at the local hobby club's TWELVE DOLLAR BALLOON
lord have mercyhttps://t.co/4D7DaTncvT
— Edward Snowden (@Snowden) February 16, 2023
The Illinois-based hobbyist club declared its balloon "missing in action" around the same time the U.S. military shot down the objects.
So, a $400,000 missile may have defeated a $12 balloon.
It's nice to know our tax dollars aren't being wasted by the federal government.
UFO shot down by $400K US missile may have been a $12 hobby balloon: report https://t.co/k2V4JDvLvw pic.twitter.com/aSvdftSMeo
— New York Post (@nypost) February 17, 2023
Did Biden Use $400K Missiles to Shoot Down $12 Hobby Balloons? https://t.co/1mQDOn3NAd
— Katie Pavlich (@KatiePavlich) February 17, 2023
First Biden lets a legit Chinese spy balloon fly all the way across the U.S. Then to show he’s tough, he starts shooting down $12 projects launched by (I kid you not) “the Northern Illinois Bottlecap Balloon Brigade“ with $400,000 missiles! 🤡🤡🤡 https://t.co/84yZbFZ924
— Donald Trump Jr. (@DonaldJTrumpJr) February 16, 2023
From Aviation Week:
The club—the Northern Illinois Bottlecap Balloon Brigade (NIBBB)—is not pointing fingers yet.
But the circumstantial evidence is at least intriguing. The club’s silver-coated, party-style, “pico balloon” reported its last position on Feb. 10 at 38,910 ft. off the west coast of Alaska, and a popular forecasting tool—the HYSPLIT model provided by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)—projected the cylindrically shaped object would be floating high over the central part of the Yukon Territory on Feb. 11. That is the same day a Lockheed Martin F-22 shot down an unidentified object of a similar description and altitude in the same general area.
There are suspicions among other prominent members of the small, pico-ballooning enthusiasts’ community, which combines ham radio and high-altitude ballooning into a single, relatively affordable hobby.
“I tried contacting our military and the FBI—and just got the runaround—to try to enlighten them on what a lot of these things probably are. And they’re going to look not too intelligent to be shooting them down,” says Ron Meadows, the founder of Scientific Balloon Solutions (SBS), a Silicon Valley company that makes purpose-built pico balloons for hobbyists, educators and scientists.
The descriptions of all three unidentified objects shot down Feb. 10-12 match the shapes, altitudes and payloads of the small pico balloons, which can usually be purchased for $12-180 each, depending on the type.
At least the Biden administration can defeat a $12 pico balloon.
These are the potential UFOs the U.S. military took out with $400,000 heat-seeking AIM-9X Sidewinder missiles.
This is a pico balloon, and it may be what your government shot down with heat-seeking AIM-9X Sidewinder missiles, which are worth over $400,000 each pic.twitter.com/c0Lb5EE2zE
— Dave DeCamp (@DecampDave) February 16, 2023
The New York Post noted:
The US downed airborne objects over Alaska on Friday and Lake Huron on Sunday, in addition to Saturday’s takedown.
On Thursday, President Biden finally addressed the unprecedented military action in North American airspace after five days of silence and told Americans there was no evidence that the three unidentified flying objects were nefarious.
“We don’t yet know exactly what these three objects were,” Biden said, echoing remarks by other administration officials.
“But nothing, nothing right now suggests they were related to China’s spy balloon program, or that they were surveillance vehicles from any other country,” the president added, acknowledging a disclosure made Tuesday by his National Security Council.
“The intelligence community’s current assessment is that these three objects are most likely balloons tied to private companies, recreational or research institutions, studying weather or conducting other scientific research,” Biden said.
Authorities have been working to recover the debris from the three objects recently downed over North America.
Join the conversation!
Please share your thoughts about this article below. We value your opinions, and would love to see you add to the discussion!