Canadian protection minister describes object shot down by NORAD

According to the Pentagon, no. Rod first detected this latest unidentified unmanned object over Alaska on Friday evening as they monitored it and tracked where it was going. It did cross into Canadian airspace space. At some point today, President Biden.

And Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau both spoke they had both been monitoring the situation for the last 24 hours, and they ultimately decided that out of an abundance of caution. They wanted to follow the advice.

Of their military leaders and authorize the shooting down of this object. Now, at this point was this operation was underway. It was ultimately an American F-22 fighter jet that shot down this unidentified object over Canada.

Though there are still so many questions about what exactly this object entailed, includes including the size, its origin and its purpose. And a few moments ago, the defense minister of Canada talked a little bit about what they know at this moment.

That recovery operations are now underway and will be supported by the Canadian Armed Forces in conjunction with the RCMP This coordinated operation will allow a further investigation into this object. We have no further details.

About the object at this time, other than it appears to be a small cylindrical object and smaller than the one that was downed off the coast. Of North Carolina. There is no reason to believe that the impact of the object in Canadian territory is of any public concern.

Now, there's some details that she shared there that they felt were different from the object that was downed just last week. It's also worth noting that the object that was over off the Alaskan coast yesterday and then today, that those are flying.

At about 40,000 feet at that point, there is some concern that there could be some impact for civilian aircraft. Now, just to recap, there's this object today. Yesterday there was another unidentified object.

Near the coast of Alaska that President Biden ordered had to have shot down. And then just one week prior, we were here talking about that suspected Chinese spy balloon that was off the Carolina coast, that President Biden had order shot down as well.

Now, there still are so many questions about these latest two unidentified objects and who exactly they belong to, whether it's a country, whether it's a private entity right now with a focus will be is on the recovery missions.

For both the one that was shot down today and the one shot down yesterday to try to determine as much information as they possibly can be can about their origin. And also the purpose All right. Arlette Signs,.

We know you'll stay on top of it. Thanks so much. Joining us now to talk about this, you know, transportation analyst Mary Schiavo. She's also a former inspector general for the Department of Transportation. Mary, where do we begin? Let's see.

I guess let's start with some of the information that was coming from the Canadian defense minister just a few moments ago, because I have you know, I listened to that press conference and I had lots of questions. First of all,.

This Canadian defense minister said that the object that is, I guess, of interest here in all of this that was shot down over the skies in Canada earlier today was cylindrical and shaped. That was the.

That is the exact words you used. She said cylindrical and shape. She said it was flying at about 40,000 feet. Going back to the conversation you and you and I had earlier, this evening, you can't have objects flying.

That low could get in the way of civilian aircraft, obviously. But what is your sense of it, listening to that kind of information? Particularly the shape of this object? That is very odd. Well, it's very odd. You know, if you're looking for.

A traditional balloon or an aircraft but throughout history, there have been many cylindrical flying objects. Okay. Not to mention dirty balls. And there have been rigid form bolts. They don't have to be just a gossamer balloon, so to speak.

So the fact that no one has reported that the object took evasive action suggests that perhaps it was not being remotely controlled. Perhaps it was moving with the winds, etc. But right now, it could be a lot of things.

Not to mention, as I mentioned before, it could be a rigid form form of a balloon or other object that had been used both by the United States and other countries in the past. What I guess one of the questions that I have very is.

Why is it here we are about a day, more than a day after this object was shot down off the coast of Alaska. We still haven't been told any information as to the specifics of what that object was. And, you know,.

Then we have this other object shot down today that it's very peculiar. Right. Well, I can tell you from firsthand experience since I've been up here working in Alaska for about two weeks on another plane case, aircraft case, the weather is really bad,.

Not bad per se. There's just a lot of snow. It's a bit windy. It's very cold. It's very foggy. So between the snow and the fog and you're trying to lie land on, they said it was a you know, an ice pack and ice island,.

Even for our great aviators and and seafarers and the U.S. military. That's tough. And so the weather here is rather obscured, so to speak. And the snow is coming down heavily in Anchorage. So it may just be that they can't.

Get to this object in a safe way and that this is just a dicey kind of operation to go and inspect it. Because what Natasha Bertrand, our our national security reporter, was telling us earlier on this program was that the pilots.

Who were trying to fly up close to this object in Alaska yesterday were having different accounts, offering different accounts as to what they saw. So I suppose the elements, to your point, might be a factor in all of this. Right. Visibility is rather poor.

I mean, I'm working very close to an airport. And believe me, it's all IFR instrument flight operations right now. Planes that are taking off, they disappear into the clouds very quickly, especially with snow coming down.

So the fact that the pilots couldn't identify it, particularly as it was, for example, a rigid form of an air ship, you know, a dirigible, so to speak. Yeah, they wouldn't have had any occasion to see those over the last decade or so a couple of decades.

So I think that they're just having difficulty actually getting eyes on and the equipment that they used to shoot them down obviously does not depend upon human eyes to have eyes on. They have the ability to do that, you know, with their or their computers.

So I think that the visibility is a big issue up here. All right, Mary Schiavo, thanks so much for springing into action for us. So we've added additional hour of CNN NEWSROOM this evening. We appreciate it.

Paula Newton joins me on the phone. Paula, I guess, you know, you and I had just a brief couple of moments to parse through what the Canadian defense minister was saying during that press conference. But I want to go back and reiterate.

What she said just about 20 or 30 minutes ago and that is that this object was flying at about 40,000 feet. It was over the Yukon Territory and that it was some it was in. So it was cylindrical. It was a small cylindrical object,.

Which obviously sounds very strange. But as Mary Schiavo was saying, there might be some perfectly fine explanations for that. But your impressions as to how much information you're getting from the Canadian side of things, we're not getting a whole lot.

From the American side at this point. Yeah, no. And if officials wanted to get ahead of this, obviously, because it was shot down over Canadian airspace and it was up to them to make these kinds of pronouncements,.

Really to say what was shot down, exactly what was going on, and the fact that it was shot down four and a half hours ago now and that they were going through the debris field to try and ascertain what it is. I think there were a couple of significant things.

And I think and Anita Anand, the defense minister, saying that it was at 40,000 feet. Right. And that gives us some explanation as to why they decided that it had to be brought down now. We're showing a map right now of Yukon that is a huge territory.

She said it was shot down in central Yukon. You know, it's going to take a while to really determine where it came down, even though they I'm sure they had line of sight on it. But to obviously pick it up and then analyze it. This is going to be a joint operation.

It is obviously Canadian forces right now that are doing that kind of that kind of investigation right now. But in conjunction with the RCMP, Canada's national police force, and in fact, the FBI and U.S. forces as well. So was it.

The same kind of object that was shot down over Alaska by the United States? Might have been. I think many questions right now would be that the minister, Anita Anand, went out of her way to say to us, Jim, that this was unprecedented.

And unprecedented action on the part of Norway to shoot something like this down over Canadian airspace. The question she did not answer was whether or not they had seen objects like this before in their radar. She went on to say,.

Obviously, that they're going to be really beefing up their surveillance. There that does involve an entire new security infrastructure up there that they have been working on for years. But also, Jim, want to point out.

Something that Secretary Austin said after meeting with Defense Minister Ananda in Washington just yesterday and that he referenced the increasing assertiveness of China. Now, while they were talking about China because of the spy balloon that was shot down off.

The Carolina coast, at issue is that they know they have other actors in the Arctic Russia being just one. And they do see a more robust defense structure that needs to be put in place there. But I thought that language was quite strong on.

The part of the secretary saying it was Anita Anand together. That is is this this assertiveness that bothers them. So certainly a menacing factor. Now, three objects, high altitude and taking action on all three.

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