UFO shot down by $400K US missile may have been a $12 hobby balloon: report

One of the UFOs shot down last weekend by the US Air Force with a $400,000 missile may have simply been a $12 balloon belonging to an Illinois enthusiast club, a report said.

The Northern Illinois Bottlecap Balloon Brigade told Aviation Week on Thursday that it fears one of its diligently-tracked gasbags that recently went missing was mistaken as the mystery object taken out by the military over Canada on Saturday.

The Pico Balloon — a silver-coated, cylindrically shaped object — reported its last position at 38,910 ft. off the west coast of Alaska on Friday.

By Saturday, based on the balloon’s projected path, it would have been over the central part of the Yukon Territory around the same time a military Lockheed Martin F-22 shot down an unidentified object of a similar description and altitude in the same Canadian vicinity, the outlet reported.

The NIBBB — a group of enthusiasts dedicated to creating, releasing and tracking homemade balloons — declared its K9YO device “missing in action” on Saturday.

The K9YO balloon had circumnavigated the globe six times during a 123-day span before its tracking device went dark Friday.

The balloon was equipped with a small GPS transmitter and an antenna, allowing the group to track it with a ham radio.

The Air Force used Sidewinder missiles in their targeted attacks against suspected Chinese spy balloons and mystery UFOs, Fortune reported. Each missile comes at a price tag of roughly $400,000.

The US also downed airborne objects over Alaska on Friday and Lake Huron on Sunday.

Pico Balloons, however, typically fall between $12 and $180 each depending on the type, Aviation Week reported.

White House officials admitted this week that “hundreds, if not thousands” of objects in the sky — including the UFOs it shot down last week — could be as innocuous as “used car lot balloons.”