Mystery objects shot down over USA were ‘weather balloons’ – government official

Government officials now believe that the three objects shot down by US Air Force F-35 fighters over the weekend were some "sort of weather balloon" rather than "spy balloons".

The mystery objects were blasted out of the sky over North America with the Pentagon initially expressing their view that they were linked to an espionage mission and had originated from China.

But ABC News Senior Pentagon Reporter Luis Martinez has posted on Twitter to confirm that stance has now changed.

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In the tweet, Martinez wrote: "A senior U.S. official tells @abc there is no sense that the three objects shot down this weekend are anything but meteorological balloons or some sort of weather balloon, and not spy balloons."

The objects were shot down on Friday (February 11) having been spotted over North America for 10 days.

One, a giant airship "the size of three buses", was understood to have originated in China although the US and Chinese governments disagreed about its exact purpose.

Despite the Pentagon's spy claims, China said the monster airship was a civilian craft designed to monitor weather systems.

The pilots who shot down that object "were not able to identify what they saw", according to CNN's Natasha Bertrand.

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She also added that the pilots "were saying that they did not see anything on the object that appeared able to propel it, that it seemed like there was no way that this was actually able to stay in the air".

A Pentagon official, meanwhile, told ABC News at the time that the object was "cylindrical and silver-ish grey" and gave the "balloon-like" appearance of floating without "any sort of propulsion".

Pentagon spokesman Brigadier General Patrick Ryder added that the object did not appear to be manned and that it had been shot down because it posed a "reasonable threat to civilian air traffic" as it was flying at 40,000 feet – around the same height as commercial airliners.

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