'Can't Rule Out Aliens': Top US Commander On Airborne Unidentified Objects Shot Down By US
"At this point we continue to assess every threat or potential threat, unknown, that approaches North America with an attempt to identify it," said General Glen VanHerck.
New Delhi: After a series of shoot-downs of mysterious objects, the US Air Force commander in charge of North American airspace said on Sunday that he would not rule out aliens or any other explanation just yet, deferring to US intelligence professionals, Reuters reported.
Asked whether he had ruled out an extraterrestrial origin for three airborne objects shot down by US warplanes in as many days, General Glen VanHerck, who is head of US North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) and Northern Command, said, "I'll let the intel community and the counterintelligence community figure that out. I haven't ruled out anything."
"At this point we continue to assess every threat or potential threat, unknown, that approaches North America with an attempt to identify it," Reuters quoted VanHerck as saying.
VanHerck's remarks came during a Pentagon briefing on Sunday, following the downing of an octagonal-shaped object over Lake Huron on the US-Canada border by a US F-16 fighter jet, acting on orders from US President Joe Biden.
This is the third shooting down of an unidentified aerial object in a week after a US fighter jet shot down a Chinese surveillance balloon in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of South Carolina last Saturday. The previous two were shot down by US fighter jets in Alaska on Friday and over Canadian airspace on Saturday.
According to Reuters, another US defense official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said separately after the news briefing that the military had seen no evidence suggesting that any of the objects in question were of extraterrestrial origin.
VanHerck told reporters that the military was unable to immediately determine the means by which any of the three latest objects were kept aloft, the means of their propulsion or where they were coming from.
"We're calling them objects, not balloons, for a reason," said VanHerck.
The incidents come as the Pentagon has undertaken a new push in recent years to investigate military sightings of UFOs - rebranded in official government parlance as "unidentified aerial phenomena," or UAPs.
However, the government's effort to investigate anomalous, unidentified objects — whether they are in space, the skies or even underwater — has led to hundreds of reports that are being investigated, senior military leaders have said.
But so far, the Pentagon has not found evidence to indicate Earthly visits from intelligent alien life, those officials have said.
(With inputs from Reuters)
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