The disturbing massive Chinese balloons that have appeared over the western hemisphere are still appearing. The balloon that entered U.S. airspace on the west coast and traveled across the nation was shot down as it cleared the coastline of South Carolina. Navy ships have been retrieving parts of the airship that fell to the water as crowds along the Carolina coast watched last week. Balloons were spotted over South America and the Atlantic ocean as well. On Friday, an unidentified object of an unknown origin was shot down in northern Alaska. On Saturday, an unidentified object was shot down over Canada.
On Saturday evening, Montana Republican Rep. Matt Rosendale posted on Twitter that an “object” was spotted over Montana. He warns that it could potentially interfere with commercial air travel.
I am in direct contact with NORCOM and monitoring the latest issue over Havre and the northern border. Airspace is closed due to an object that could interfere with commercial air traffic — the DOD will resume efforts to observe and ground the object in the morning.
— Matt Rosendale (@RepRosendale) February 12, 2023
Rosendale posted after the restriction was lifted that he “will remain in contact with defense officials and share more information as it becomes available” because “Montanans deserve answers.” Rosendale said he had been briefed by the Department of Defense, while he was at a Lincoln Reagan dinner, Slay News reported.
On Saturday, The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) confirmed that air restrictions were in place after a “fourth balloon” was spotted in the skies above Montana and that restrictions were due to “Department of Defense activities”. “The FAA closed some airspace in Montana to support Department of Defense activities,” the FAA confirmed in a statement.
Fighter jets were scrambled and airspace above Havre, Montana, a town of 10,000 people, 30 miles south of the Canadian border, was shut at 7:50 pm before being reopened about 50 minutes later.
The airspace was closed down in the area around Havre not far from the U.S. border with Canada. The FAA said the directive was “effective immediately until further notice,” Slay News reported. Shortly after that announcement, the FAA said the airspace has been reopened but did not provide further details. Rosendale later issued a statement saying DOD officials have confirmed that the “unidentified object” above Montana is “the fourth balloon.”
U.S Northern Command and the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) noted in a statement Saturday night that they “detected a radar anomaly and sent fighter aircraft to investigate.” However, the planes “did not identify any object to correlate to the radar hits. NORAD will continue to monitor the situation.”
Slay News notes how Rosendale related the event:
“I’m at an event, a Lincoln Reagan dinner in Columbus, Montana right now,” Rosendale told Fox News. “And DOD called me as I have been sitting here and started giving me briefings to tell me what was going on. I clarified with them that this is actually the fourth balloon, OK.”
“The first we shot down over the Atlantic. One was shot down before it entered into Alaska’s airspace. A third was shot down, Trudeau ordered over Canada. So now we’re talking about a fourth incident.”
Rosendale also revealed that the U.S. military has been unable to down the object and the situation is continuing into Sunday. “DOD told me that they are going to be tracking the object – they can’t even say exactly what it is – they are going to track the object until it gets light again,” Rosendale continued. “They don’t have the ability to put any more eyes on it with aircraft until it’s light again.
Other reports state that eerily, a day after the balloon was initially spotted in Montana, an explosion was caught on camera above the city of billings, where the craft was first seen, Conservative Brief reports. Local resident Dolly Mills-Moore said she “saw a jet go by so fast and then explosion in the sky.”
“Ok, so here’s what I just caught I few minutes ago out my window. I saw a jet go by so fast and then explosion in the sky. Holy crap! Billings MT,” she said.
Ok, so here’s what I just caught I few minutes ago out my window. I saw a jet go by so fast and then explosion in the sky. Holy crap! Billings MT. pic.twitter.com/swr8ERC6pf
— Dolly Mills-Moore (@MMtTreasures) February 4, 2023
Conservative Brief continues that afterward, a local law enforcement official commented on the video, per KULR8, that Sheriff Mike Linder says the sheriff’s office has made contact with the woman who shared the video of the object over Billings late Friday afternoon. Linder says while they believe the video is legitimate, it is difficult to tell what exactly is seen in the video. He goes on to say that there is no evidence that an aircraft went down or that there was an actual explosion over Billings.
As for the balloon, Beijing has insisted that it drifted off course and could not be maneuvered, but the Pentagon refuted that. “The balloon is maneuverable,” Pentagon spokesman Air Force Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder told reporters last week. “It violated the law. We communicated that to China.” “The airship is from China. It is a civilian airship used for research, mainly meteorological, purposes,” a spokesperson for the Chinese Foreign Ministry admitted at the time. “Affected by the Westerlies and with limited self-steering capability, the airship deviated far from its planned course.”
