FAA briefly shuts down airspace over part of Lake Michigan as tensions high over Chinese spy balloon scandal

The US government briefly banned civilian aircraft from flying over northern Lake Michigan on Sunday as tensions remain high over the Chinese spy balloon scandal, according to reports.

The Federal Aviation Administration declared a “national defense airspace” in the area before canceling it without explanation, Fox News said.

The closure — also covering northern Michigan and Door County, Wis., which juts into the lake — lasted about an hour, until shortly before 1 p.m. Central Time, according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

In a statement, the Northern American Aerospace Defense Command said the move was made “to ensure the safety of air traffic in the area during NORAD operations,” the Journal Sentinel said.

Flights out of Milwaukee’s Mitchell International Airport reportedly weren’t affected.

NORAD didn’t say why the airspace was closed, but the order came one day after a US fighter jet shot down an object flying over Canada, marking the third such incident since Feb. 4, when an Air Force plane blew an alleged Chinese spy balloon out of the sky off the coast of South Carolina.

Sunday’s FAA declaration warned pilots that they “may be intercepted, detained and interviewed by law enforcement or security personnel” if they were to enter the restricted airspace over Lake Michigan, Fox News said.

The FAA threatened the use of deadly force to ensure compliance, Fox News said.

A similar situation unfolded Saturday around Havre, Mont., near the Canadian border, with the NORAD later blaming the incident on a radar anomaly and saying nothing was found.

Military fighters that investigated “did not identify any object to correlate to the radar hits,” NORAD said.

Three lawmakers, including US Sen. Jon Tester (D-Montana), said on Twitter on Saturday that an unidentified object had been spotted in Montana airspace.

US Rep. Matt Rosendale (R-Mont.) tweeted Sunday afternoon that he was “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,” he added.

Rosendale was apparently referring to the US military’s Northern Command, or USNORTHCOM, whose commander, Gen. Glen VanHerck, is also in charge of NORAD.

A rep for the US Northern Command said it was aware of Rosendale’s tweet but declined to comment.