Ruling out aliens? Senior US general says not ruling out anything yet
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 said: "I'll let the intel community and the counterintelligence community figure that out. I haven't ruled out anything."
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WASHINGTON: The US Air Force general overseeing North American airspace said on Sunday after a series of shoot-downs of unidentified objects that he would not rule out aliens or any other explanation yet, deferring to US intelligence experts.
Asked whether he had ruled out an extraterrestrial origin for three airborne objects shot down by US warplanes in as many days, General Glen Van Herck 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," said Van Herck, head of US North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) and Northern Command.
VanHerck's comments came during a Pentagon briefing on Sunday after a US F- 16 fighter jet shot down an octagonal-shaped object over Lake Huron on the US- Canada border, acting on orders from US President Joe Biden.
It was the third unidentified flying object to be knocked out of the sky by US warplanes since Friday, following the Feb. 4 downing of a suspected Chinese weather balloon that put North American air defenses on high alert.
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 Van Herck, who is head of the joint US-Canadian North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) and the US Air Force Northern Command.
