‘Bottlecap Balloon Brigade’ Hobbyist Group Might’ve Launched Object Shot Down By F-22s—Drawing Political Heat For Biden
top line
A missing balloon launched by a small group of Illinois hobbyists emerged Thursday as the latest possible theory behind one of the unidentified objects shot down by the US military over the weekend, and President Joe Biden is already seeing his way political heat for the possibility – although US officials haven’t responded to the idea.
Important facts
A recent blog post from the Northern Illinois Bottlecap Balloon Brigade said one of its silver “pico” balloons — a term for small balloons distinct from larger objects like weather balloons — went missing off the southwest coast of Alaska early Saturday morning.
Hours later, US fighter jets from the North American Aerospace Defense Command shot down an unidentified object over Canada’s Yukon Territory – which borders Alaska – with a heat-seeking missile, the third of four mysterious floating objects hit by the US military this month became .
News site Aviation Week first reported Thursday on the possible connection between the Bottlecap Balloon Brigade of northern Illinois and the Yukon object, drawing the attention of reporters and pundits who have vocally questioned whether the two incidents were linked.
According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s HYSPLIT model, a balloon that disappeared off the coast of Alaska at the time the group claimed it was probably over the central stretch of the sprawling Yukon around the time fighters shot down the object -Territory driven .
The last reported altitude of the Northern Illinois Bottlecap Balloon Brigade balloon was about 39,000 feet – US officials said the object launched over the Yukon was flying at about 40,000 feet.
However, the Illinois group’s balloon may be too small to match the object shot down by fighter jets: the group’s object was likely a 32-inch Mylar balloon, according to hobby site RTL-SDR.com, although defense officials said that it was not identified objects were about the size of small cars.
The theory was not promoted by either the group or the Pentagon — the group did not immediately respond to a request for comment from forbeswhile the Pentagon declined to comment.
Big number
$12. That’s how cheap some pico balloons cost — although pricier models can cost as much as $180, according to Aviation Week. Pico balloons, which the Illinois group and other hobbyists use, are extremely light, although they typically carry a payload consisting of GPS trackers and radio transmitters
main critic
Some right-wing figures were quick to pick up on the story, including far-right provocateur Jack Posobiec tweet: “Biden ordered the Air Force to shoot down the Northern Illinois Bottlecap Brigade’s weather balloon,” while Donald Trump Jr. tweeted: “First, Biden flies a real Chinese spy balloon across the United States. Then to show he’s tough, he starts shooting down $12 projects launched by (I’m not kidding) ‘the Northern Illinois Bottlecap Balloon Brigade’ with $400,000 rockets!”
key background
US officials have offered few details about what the three objects shot down between Friday and Monday could be, but they have ruled out a few things. President Joe Biden said Thursday there was no evidence the objects were part of a Chinese surveillance program — unlike a suspected spy balloon that hovered over the country earlier this month before US militants shot it down off the coast of South Carolina — instead, it points to private scientific research behind the objects, and White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Monday there was “no evidence of extraterrestrial or extraterrestrial activity in these recent shutdowns.”
tangent
The first unidentified object was shot down Friday off Alaska’s north coast at an altitude of about 40,000 feet, while another object was shot down Sunday at an altitude of about 20,000 feet over Lake Huron, officials said. Biden said the shutdowns were ordered because of a potential threat to civilian aircraft, and stressed Thursday he would “not apologize” for issuing the order to shoot down the objects.
Further reading
Everything We Know About The Chinese Balloon – And 3 Other Objects – Downed By The US (Updated) (Forbes)
‘No Indication’ Three Recently Downed Flying Objects Were Chinese Spy Balloons, White House Says (Forbes)
Where is the Chinese spy balloon? Reportedly moved to the St. Louis area (Forbes)
US shoots down suspected Chinese spy balloon across Atlantic (Forbes)
Biden doesn’t apologize for launching Chinese spy balloon – and says there’s no evidence of increased UFO activity (Forbes)
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