US Army officials were forced to investigate an unidentified balloon that was flying way too high.
And what they found is strange, and a bit surprising.
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The unidentified balloon caused quite the stir and it was taken rather seriously by US officials.
Two US officials and a DOD (Department of Defense) official were on the ‘case’, actively monitoring a ‘small’ balloon flying at high altitudes in the west of the country.
Over the course of last weekend, the DOD sent a fighter aircraft to observe the balloon that was hovering above the state of Utah.
It was apparently flying at between 43,000 to 45,000 feet – which is equivalent to over 13,000 km above sea level and is very nearly as high as Concorde could fly.
After careful and extensive consideration, the US Army concluded that the balloon posed no threat to US national security, as reported by NBC.
This is because, believe it or not, it was just private property, being operated by a private citizen who just so happens to be an amateur balloonist.
Furthermore, another defense official said the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) will continue to monitor the balloon to ensure flight safety.
We’ll go ahead and assume the amateur balloonist will probably think twice before doing this again because the US, rather unsurprisingly, takes this sort of thing seriously.
Still that doesn’t seem to deter wannabe balloonist, apparently.
Just a few months ago, the US DOD began shooting down balloons that may or may not have been ‘spy’ balloons.
Except, as it turns out, one of these balloons was just a $12 hobby balloon.
Some of the images used for this article were generated using AI.
