Could UFOs over the US be the same as the infamous ‘Tic Tac’ caught on video? Expert says mysterious objects resemble white oblong spotted by the US Navy in 2004 – as the Pentagon refuses to rule out ALIENS
- US shot down the ‘octagonal’ object over Lake Huron with a missile on Sunday
- It followed the downing of two other cylindrical objects in Canada and Alaska
- Their shape recalls the famous ‘Tic Tac’-shaped UFO seen in the Pacific in 2004
UFO fever is gripping the US after a third mysterious object was shot down using a missile from a F-16 fighter jet yesterday.
The ‘octagonal’ object with ‘potential surveillance capabilities’ flew near a sensitive military site in Montana before being taken over the Great Lakes on Sunday.
It follows a further two objects that were shot down over Alaska and Canada in the preceding days and a Chinese ‘spy balloon’ being eliminated the weekend before.
While China claimed ownership of the spy balloon, the origin and purpose of the three subsequent unidentified flying objects are more mysterious, with the Pentagon refusing to rule out an extraterrestrial origin.
The shape of two of the objects recalls the famous ‘Tic Tac’ UFO – a white oblong spotted by the US Navy in 2004.
British UFO expert Nick Pope, formerly with the UK’s Ministry of Defence, told MailOnline that he ‘can’t rule out a connection with the Tic Tac sighting’ but cautioned that an overall explanation is ‘still to be determined’.
Here’s all you need to know about what the UFOs could be, and why they are increasingly becoming a major breach of Northern American airspace.
A mysterious object was taken down over the Great Lakes on Sunday after being detected in US airspace. The Pentagon issued a statement saying its path and altitude had ‘raised concerns’. It followed two other crafts discovered and destroyed over Alaska and Canada on Friday and Saturday, respectively, and a Chinese balloon taken down on February 4
WHAT HAPPENED?
US authorities were alerted to a flying octagonal object discovered in US airspace on Sunday – the third in as many days.
Three UFOs shot down in three days
– Friday Feb. 10: First UFO shot down (over Alaska)
– Saturday Feb. 11: Second UFO shot down (Yukon, Canada)
– Sunday Feb. 12: Third UFO shot down (Great Lakes)
More unusual activity:
– Saturday Feb. 11: ‘Radar anomaly’ detected, no object found (Montana)
– Saturday Feb. 4: Chinese ‘spy’ balloon shot down (South Carolina coast)
An F-16 fighter jet shot it down from around 20,000 feet over the Great Lakes at 2:42pm local time, following orders from President Biden.
Two other crafts had been discovered and subsequently destroyed over Alaska and Canada on Friday and Saturday, respectively.
All of this followed a spherical Chinese balloon being shot down on February 4 over South Carolina, meaning the US air force has now downed four objects in just eight days.
China has admitted ownership of the balloon, although it insisted it was an unmanned weather surveillance aircraft that had veered off-course.
In comparison, the three aircraft that followed at the weekend are unidentified and their nature and origin are far less clear.
WHAT DO WE KNOW ABOUT THE THREE UFOs?
The first two UFOs shot down over Alaska and Canada on Friday and Saturday have both been described as ‘cylindrical’.
According to ABC News citing an unnamed US official, the first one was described as ‘cylindrical and silver-ish gray’ and seemed to be floating without any sort of propulsion.
Pictured, the 148th Fighter Wing F-16C that shot down the unidentified object over Lake Heron on Sunday. The missile is circled
Meanwhile, the second was also cylindrical and described as much smaller than the Chinese spy balloon of February 4.
READ MORE: What are spy balloons and how do they work? All you need to know after China claims object downed by US
China’s surveillance balloon is still shrouded in mystery to some extent, but it’s thought to have sensors, radar, and cameras
Both were believed to have a payload, either attached or suspended from them, according to the officials.
It’s possible the Alaska and Canada UFOs were of the same design.
However, the third one was described as ‘octagonal’ with strings hanging off, but had no discernible payload.
Officials have said they would not definitively characterise these aircrafts as ‘balloons’ until the debris is recovered.
It’s possible that all the objects are balloons that China has released to bombard North American airspace, either as a threat or a political statement.
WHAT HAS THE PENTAGON SAID?
Following the take-down operation of the third UFO on Sunday, the Pentagon issued a statement saying its path and altitude had ‘raised concerns’.
The statement said: ‘North American Aerospace Defense Command detected the object Sunday morning and has maintained visual and radar tracking of it.
‘Based on its flight path and data we can reasonably connect this object to the radar signal picked up over Montana, which flew in proximity to sensitive DOD [Department of Defense] sites.
‘We did not assess it to be a kinetic military threat to anything on the ground, but assess it was a safety flight hazard and a threat due to its potential surveillance capabilities.’
Pictured, the spherical Chinese balloon that was shot down on February 4 over South Carolina
US Senator Marco Rubio has claimed UFOs have been ‘operating over restricted US airspace for years’ but the public has only really become aware ‘over the last 72 hours’.
Canada searching for object shot down over Yukon Saturday
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Sunday said teams are looking for the cylindrical object that a US fighter jet shot down over Yukon territory on his orders a day ago so that they can analyze it and learn more about its purpose.
‘Recovery teams are on the ground, looking to find and analyze the object,’ Trudeau told reporters.
‘There’s still much to know about it. That’s why the analysis of this object is going to be very important.’
Source: Reuters
COULD THEY BE OF EXTRATERRESTRIAL ORIGIN?
The Pentagon has refused to rule out the possibility that the collection of unidentified objects could be linked to extraterrestrials.
US Air Force General Glen VanHerck said intelligence services were exploring all avenues and would not rule out aliens or any other explanation yet.
‘I’ll let the intel community and the counterintelligence community figure that out. I haven’t ruled out anything,’ VanHerck said.
‘At this point we continue to assess every threat or potential threat, unknown, that approaches North America with an attempt to identify it.’
Mr Pope says everything that’s been shot down so far is some kind of surveillance device rather than an extraterrestrial.
‘I’m sure there’s life out there in the cosmos, and I’m open minded about the idea of visitation – to borrow the general’s phrase, I don’t rule it out,’ Pope told MailOnline.
‘But this isn’t The War of the Worlds, it’s spying, and I’m sure the US is making every effort to assess what damage has been done, and to mitigate the threat.’
According to Pope, VanHerck’s statement was a ‘generic response’ that’s used when people don’t really have an answer, but it has had the effect of inviting an extraterrestrial hypothesis.
US Air Force General Glen VanHerck said they are still unsure how the three objects were staying aloft
All the same, the cylindrical shape of the first and second object has suggested a potential link with the famous ‘Tic Tac’ UFO of 2004.
WHAT WAS TIC TAC?
In November 2004, US Navy pilots were conducting a routine training mission with the aircraft carrier USS Nimitz off the Southern California coast.
READ MORE: US is examining more than 500 reports of UFOs, hundreds of which remain unexplained
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There they noticed the so-called ‘Tic Tac’ UFO, which was leaked in an official US government video taken aboard the Navy fighter jet.
Aboard was US Navy Lieutenant Commander Alex Dietrich, who first noticed an unusual ‘churning’ of the ocean surface before seeing the UFO.
The smooth, white oblong object – resembling a large Tic Tac breath mint – flew at high speed over the water, maneuvering and accelerating in ways which seemed to defy the laws of physics.
‘It appeared to respond in a way that we didn’t recognise’, Dietrich told Reuters in 2021, and seemed to lack ‘any visible flight control surfaces or means of propulsion’.
‘We don’t know what it was, but it could have been a natural phenomenon in human activity,’ she said. ‘But the point was that it was weird, and we couldn’t recognise it.’
So could its characteristic shape give it any relation to the recently-downed objects?
Pope said he ‘can’t rule out a connection with the Tic Tac sighting’ but cautioned that an overall explanation is ‘still to be determined’.
‘I don’t have an explanation for the Tic Tac incident, and to the best of my knowledge the DOD and the US Navy are still categorising it as unidentified,’ he told MailOnline.
The Pentagon has refused to rule out an extraterrestrial origin, but the shape of two of the objects recalls the famous ‘Tic Tac’ UFO of 2004
WHAT HAPPENS NEXT?
The hunt is now on by US authorities to find the fragments of the downed objects and analyse them to reveal more about their identity.
The Pentagon has said Department of Defense staff will now work to recover Sunday’s object ‘in an effort to learn more’ about its purpose and origin’.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau also said analysis of the object that penetrated his country’s airspace ‘is going to be very important’.
However, intelligence gathered from the investigations could be kept as closely-guarded secrets.
‘The fact that this involves the intelligence agencies is one reason for the secrecy, and while more information will emerge, some details will doubtless be kept from the media and the public, for reasons of national security,’ Pope told MailOnline.
‘That will probably ensure that the conspiracy theories about aliens aren’t going to go away just yet.’
Pentagon issues statement following downing of mysterious ‘airborne object’ at 20,000 feet
Today at 2:42 p.m. ET, at the direction of President Biden, and based on the recommendations of Secretary Austin and military leadership, an F-16 fired an AIM9x to successfully shoot down an airborne object flying at approximately 20,000 feet altitude in US airspace over Lake Huron in the State of Michigan.
Its path and altitude raised concerns, including that it could be a hazard to civil aviation.
The location chosen for this shoot down afforded us the opportunity to avoid impact to people on the ground while improving chances for debris recovery. There are no indications of any civilians hurt or otherwise affected.
North American Aerospace Defense Command detected the object Sunday morning and has maintained visual and radar tracking of it.
Based on its flight path and data we can reasonably connect this object to the radar signal picked up over Montana, which flew in proximity to sensitive DOD sites.
We did not assess it to be a kinetic military threat to anything on the ground, but assess it was a safety flight hazard and a threat due to its potential surveillance capabilities.
Our team will now work to recover the object in an effort to learn more.
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