The object shot down over the Yukon
The account
An American fighter jet shot down a flying object over Canada that no one could identify.
What investigators found
The shootdown is a fact; U.S. officials later said that week's objects were most likely ordinary balloons.
The story
On February 11, 2023, a U.S. F-22 fighter, operating under NORAD, shot down an object flying at high altitude over central Yukon. The order was given by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, and Defence Minister Anita Anand described the target as a small cylindrical object. It was the first time NORAD had brought something down over Canadian territory.
The episode came a few days after a Chinese balloon was shot down off the U.S. coast, in the middle of a series of shootdowns, one of them over Lake Huron. The search for debris in the snow ended without any announcement that it had been recovered. U.S. officials later said these objects were most likely commercial or research balloons, with no link to anything extraordinary.