A US F-22 fighter jet shot down an unidentified cylindrical object over Canada on Saturday, the second such incident in just two days, with North America looking increasingly nervous after a week dominated by the issue of Chinese spy balloons, Reuters reported.

• In addition to the Canadian case, the US military also mobilized fighter jets to Montana to investigate a radar anomaly that caused a brief closure of federal airspace. “These aircraft did not identify any objects to correlate the radar hits,” the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) said.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau first announced the downed object over the northern Yukon Territory on Saturday, saying Canadian forces would find and analyze the remains of the plane.

Canada’s Minister of Defense: “It had a cylindrical shape”

Canadian Defense Minister Anita Anand declined to comment on the origin of the object, which she said had a cylindrical shape.

She didn’t call it a hot air balloon, but said it was smaller than the Chinese hot air balloon that went down a week ago off the coast of South Carolina.

It was at an altitude of 12,200m, posing a threat to civil air traffic and was shot down at 20:41 GMT (22:41 Saturday in Romania), she said.

“There is no reason to believe that the impact of the facility on Canadian soil would cause public concern,” Anand said at a news conference.

What was reported by some pilots who approached

Pilots sent by the military gave different accounts of what they observed after approaching the object, a source told CNN. Some pilots said it “interfered with their sensors,” but other pilots said they had no such problem.

The Pentagon said NORAD detected the object over Alaska late Friday night. US fighter jets from Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, Alaska, watched the object as it crossed Canadian airspace, where it was joined by Canadian CF-18 and CP-140 aircraft.

“A US F-22 shot down a target over Canadian territory with an AIM 9X missile after close coordination between US and Canadian authorities,” Pentagon spokesman Brigadier General Patrick Ryder said in a statement.

US President Joe Biden authorized the US military to work with Canada to shoot down a high-altitude plane after a phone conversation between Biden and Trudeau, the Pentagon said.

The White House said Biden and Trudeau agreed to continue close coordination to “protect our airspace.” both presidents discussed the importance of restoring the object to determine more details about its purpose or origin,” she said in a statement.

The incident came just a day after another was shot down over Alaska

A day earlier, Biden ordered to shoot down an unidentified flying object in Alaska once again.

At this time, the US military is not saying what they know about the object (if they know anything new), although the search in the ice of Alaska is still ongoing.

On Friday, the Pentagon provided only a few details, such as that the object was the size of a small car, flew at an altitude of about 12,000 meters, could not maneuver and appeared to be unmanned.

US officials have been trying to get information about the object since it was spotted on Thursday. “At this time, we do not have additional details about the object, including its capabilities, purpose or origin,” the command said Saturday.

He cited challenging weather conditions in the Arctic, including cold winds, snow and short daylight, which could make search and recovery difficult: “Personnel will adjust recovery operations to stay safe,” he added.

Last Saturday, the Americans raised most of the downed balloon

On February 4, an American F-22 fighter jet shot down what the US government said was a Chinese surveillance balloon off the coast of South Carolina after a weeklong trip across the United States and parts of Canada. China said it was a civilian research vessel.

Some US lawmakers criticized Biden for not bursting the China bubble sooner. The US military recommended waiting until it was over the ocean, fearing casualties on the ground from falling balloon debris.

Since the downing of a 60-meter high-altitude Chinese surveillance balloon, the U.S. military has been scouring the ocean to recover both the remains of the balloon and the underside where the electronic devices were located.

The Pentagon said a significant portion of the balloon had already been found or had been recovered, suggesting that US officials may soon have more information about the Chinese machine’s potential spying capabilities.

Sea conditions on Friday “allowed dives and unmanned underwater vehicles to be carried out, as well as the recovery of additional debris from the seabed,” the Northern Command said.

China’s military space and computer warfare unit took part in the balloon flight operation, several Kyodo news agency sources said on Thursday.

Beijing criticized the US decision to shoot down a Chinese hot air balloon that had been flying over the United States for several days, accusing Washington of “blatantly overreacting and seriously violating international practice”.