A Montana congressman said on Saturday night that he had been told an unidentified object was spotted over his district, forcing the temporary closure of airspace – and the search for it would resume at daylight.
Matt Rosendale, a Republican elected in 2020, said he had been briefed by the Department of Defense, while he was at a Lincoln Reagan dinner. Fighter jets were scrambled and airspace above Havre, 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.
‘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.’
Earlier on Saturday, Justin Trudeau, the Canadian prime minister, confirmed an object had been shot down by U.S. F-22s in Yukon, as part of a joint Canadian-U.S. operation.
Rosendale continued: ‘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.’ He said he was told the Pentagon would follow the object, but were unable to shoot it down because it was dark.
‘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,’ he said.
I am in constant communication with NORCOM and they have just advised me that they have confidence there IS an object and it WAS NOT an anomaly. I am waiting now to receive visual confirmation. Our nation’s security is my priority.
— Matt Rosendale (@RepRosendale) February 12, 2023
‘They don’t have the ability to put any more eyes on it with aircraft until it’s light again. ‘And then tomorrow morning we’ll be dealing with it.” NORAD, the North American Aerospace Defense Command, issued a statement shortly after Rosendale’s interview and confirmed it was a false alarm.
‘With the cooperation of the Federal Aviation Administration, North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) implemented a temporary flight restriction airspace in central Montana on Feb. 11, 2023, to ensure the safety of air traffic in the area during NORAD operations,’ the statement said.
‘The restriction has been lifted,’ it continued. ‘NORAD detected a radar anomaly and sent fighter aircraft to investigate. Those aircraft did not identify any object to correlate to the radar hits. NORAD will continue to monitor the situation.’ (SOURCE)
