Another unknown floating 'object' has been shot down over Lake Michigan
- Another unknown object was shot down over Lake Michigan-Huron on Sunday.
- The FAA briefly declared a "national defense airspace" over part of the lake while it was downed.
The Federal Aviation Administration temporarily restricted airspace above Lake Michigan on Sunday for "national defense" as a suspicious object was shot down — the third such object downed by the US in three days.
"Today at 2:42 p.m. ET, at the direction of President Biden, and based on the recommendations of Secretary Austin and military leadership, an F-16 fired an AIM9x to successfully shoot down an airborne object flying at approximately 20,000 feet altitude in U.S. airspace over Lake Huron in the State of Michigan," a statement from the Pentagon read. "Its path and altitude raised concerns, including that it could be a hazard to civil aviation."
Prior to shooting the object down, the FAA declared a "national defense airspace" over Lake Michigan-Huron, Fox News reported the agency said in a notice. The FAA said that it "briefly closed some airspace over Lake Michigan to support Department of Defense activities" in a statement to Insider on Sunday.
"The airspace has been reopened," the statement said.
The United States military also closed airspace in Montana on Saturday and sent fighter jets to investigate a "radar anomaly," according to Reuters. The North American Aerospace Defense Command said the pilots didn't see anything in the area of the corresponding radar hits, according to the outlet.
Montana Republican Rep. Matt Rosendale said on Twitter that he is in "constant communication" with officials who "advised me that they have confidence there IS an object, and it WAS NOT an anomaly."
Rosendale's office did not immediately return Insider's request for comment.
"Based on its flight path and data we can reasonably connect this object to the radar signal picked up over Montana, which flew in proximity to sensitive DOD sites," a Sunday statement from the Pentagon read. "We did not assess it to be a kinetic military threat to anything on the ground, but assess it was a safety flight hazard and a threat due to its potential surveillance capabilities. Our team will now work to recover the object in an effort to learn more."
The closure of Lake Michigan's airspace follows the shooting down of a suspected Chinese spy balloon by an F-22 off the coast of South Carolina on February 4. F-22 jets also shot down another unidentified object over Alaska on Friday. Then, another unknown object, described as "cylindrical" by Canadian Defence Minister Anita Anand, was shot down over Canada.
Sen. Chuck Schumer said on Sunday that the US believes the objects shot down over Alaska and Canada were also balloons.
The US Department of Defense said that the FBI and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police will be working "very closely" to investigate the object shot down over Canada in a statement.