Since January, four flying objects have been spotted over North America, both in the U.S. and Canada, although the U.S. has been the only to fire at them. The first sighting was believed to be a Chinese reconnaissance mission. Two more were seen and shot down as well, also balloons, now believed to either be an actual Chinese weather balloon as they claim or spy vessels. 

The first balloon was spotted on January 28th in Alaska. It was described as a giant dirigible, also known as a blimp, with a shockingly large undercarriage, best called the size of three buses. That’s around 120 feet long and 25 feet long. Generally, weather balloons are about 20 feet in diameter and not blimp shaped, hence why it can be hard to believe the Chinese government on that. On January 30th, the vessel flew over Canada. On the 31st, it entered American territory over Idaho. Through February 1st-4th it traveled southeast to South Carolina, and was then shot down via aircraft over American water. 

 This is also not the first time Chinese balloons have flown over U.S. territory. The balloon had multiple sensors and solar panels to collect information and power transmitters.

On February 9th, another object was spotted over Alaska again. It was investigated and shot down again. This object was unmanned as well, and looked much less like a balloon than before. It had no propulsion though, so it may be described as one. This was shot down as it endangered regular flights between Alaska and anywhere else.It’s owner is unknown.

On February 10th, a third object was spotted over Canada. Of course it entered through Alaska, and when U.S. aircrafts went to investigate, Canadian crafts went up as well. Once back into American territory, the object was shot down. Once again, unmanned and unidentifiable. This object, however, was much smaller and looked rather different than the other balloons. 

Finally on February 12, a fourth balloon was shot down over Great Lake Huron. It was shot down due to disturbing flight paths and an “abundance of caution.” This object was octagonal, not cylindrical or spherical, and held no indication of surveillance.

Despite lack of concrete evidence, most people are drawing the conclusion that all four flying objects were Chinese, although a motive is difficult to grasp when there are no sensors on some of them. Government officials have also made the claim that the detection of some of these crafts wouldn’t have been possible without the recently upgraded and refined sensors that have been developed. No more information has been made public as of yet.