Governor: Minnesota Jets Shoot Down Flying Object

DULUTH (WJON News) -- Fighter jets based in Minnesota helped shoot down a flying object over the weekend.

Minnesota Governor Tim Walz says airmen in the 148th Fighter Wing based out of Duluth took off from Madison, Wisconsin to shoot down the object over Lake Huron as part of a federal mission.

The governor says the Bulldogs executed their mission flawlessly, protected the homeland, and go the birds home safe.

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It was the fourth such downing in eight days and the latest military strike in an extraordinary chain of events over U.S. airspace that Pentagon officials believe has no peacetime precedent.

Part of the reason for the repeated shootdowns is a "heightened alert" following a spy balloon from China that emerged over U.S. airspace in late January, Gen. Glen VanHerck, head of NORAD and U.S. Northern Command, said in a briefing with reporters.

Since then, fighter jets last week also shot down objects over Canada and Alaska. Pentagon officials said they posed no security threats, but so little was known about them that Pentagon officials were ruling nothing out - not even UFOs.

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