Likely UFOs? Heavens, no!
The recent publicized spate of UFOs spotted over North America has left some wondering whether aliens are invading Earth — but the reason for the sightings is not so out-of-thisworld, experts say.
“At any given moment, thousands of balloons” float thousands of feet above the ground, including many sent aloft by the US government and military and private entities, Paul Fetkowitz, president of Kaymont Consolidated Industries, a maker of high-altitude balloons in Melbourne, Fla., said to The New York Times.
While the objects have long been observed by pilots, military personnel and civilians, it only seems as if there are more at least partly because of the recent sightings being publicized, experts say.
“For years, you didn’t hear anything about balloons. Now, we’re on the lookout for any kind of flying object,” Terry Deshler, an emeritus professor of atmospheric science at the University of Wyoming, told the Times.
US Air Force fighter jets recently shot down four suspicious objects in a little over a week — famously beginning with a Chinese spy balloon downed over the Atlantic Ocean after it traversed the country.
Three other flying objects — one over Alaska Friday, a “small, metallic balloon” over northwestern Canada Saturday and an octagonal object over Lake Huron Sunday — were then ordered shot down by President Biden.
The last three objects have not been linked to China, other countries or aliens, for that matter.
Air Force Gen. Glen VanHerck, head of US North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) and Northern Command (NORCOM), made sensational headlines Sunday when he said he couldn’t rule out little green men, forcing the White House to issue a clarification that the US has “no indication of aliens or extraterrestrial activity” tied to the objects.
A former NORAD commander suggested Monday the three most recently downed objects may have been launched by non-Chinese adversaries to test the US’s reaction.
The seeming proliferation could stem partly from attention to what the US government now calls “unidentified aerial phenomena,” or UAPs, experts said.