Object shot down by military aircraft over Lake Huron, 3 US officials confirm to ABC News

CHICAGO — Another high-altitude object was shot down Sunday, this time over Lake Huron, three U.S. officials confirmed to ABC News. According to one of the officials, the object was shot down by a U.S. military aircraft.

This is a developing story and will be updated

Michigan Congresswoman Elissa Slotkin tweeted Sunday that she received a call from the Department of Defense, saying “Our military has an extremely close eye on the object above Lake Huron.”

Around 3 p.m., she tweeted again saying the object had been downed by pilots from the U.S. Air Force and National Guard.

“Great work by all who carried out this mission both in the air and back at headquarters. We’re all interested in exactly what this object was and it’s purpose,” Slotkin wrote.

Republican Rep. Jack Bergman of Michigan also confirmed the operation Sunday, tweeting, “The US military has decommissioned another ‘object’ over Lake Huron.”

“I appreciate the decisive action by our fighter pilots,” he said.

Airspace over parts of Lake Michigan were under temporary flight restrictions for national defense reasons earlier Sunday, according to a Federal Aviation Administration notice.

The notice said the FAA temporarily declared parts of the area as “national defense airspace.” The North American Aerospace Defense Command said restrictions were implemented at about 11 a.m.

“The FAA briefly closed some airspace over Lake Michigan to support Department of Defense activities. The airspace has been reopened,” the FAA said in a statement just before 1 p.m.

SEE ALSO | US F-22 shoots down unidentified ‘cylindrical’ object detected over Canada

“With the cooperation of the Federal Aviation Administration, North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) implemented a temporary flight restriction airspace over Lake Michigan at approximately 12 p.m. EST on Feb. 12, 2023, to ensure the safety of air traffic in the area during NORAD operations. The temporary flight restriction has since been lifted,” NORAD said in a Tweet.

NORAD did not immediately reply to questions on the nature of those operations.

The operation marks the third day in a row that an unidentified object was shot down over North American airspace. An unidentified object was shot down over northern Canada on Saturday. On Friday, an unidentified object was shot down in Alaska airspace by a US F-22.

There was also a temporary flight restriction put in place Saturday night over Montana, according to NORAD. The temporary restriction was issued after NORAD detected a “radar anomaly.” Aircraft were sent to investigate the incident but didn’t see anything.

It also follows last weekend when a suspected Chinese surveillance balloon was taken down by F-22s off the coast of South Carolina.

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CNN contributed to this post