United States Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer believes the unidentified objects shot down by US fighter jets over Canada and Alaska were balloons, albeit smaller than the Chinese balloon shot down over the Atlantic over the weekend.

The Democratic senator told ABC’s This Week that President Joe Biden’s national security adviser Jake Sullivan briefed him on Saturday night about the incident hours earlier. An object the size of a small car fell over Alaska on Friday, according to the White House.

Asked if the two recent objects were balloons, Schumer said: “They think so, but much smaller than the first.”

The government said the first hot air balloon was the size of three school buses. It was shot down on February 4 off the coast of South Carolina after crossing US territory. The Biden administration said he was being used for surveillance. China claims to have been on a meteorological mission.

Schumer said task forces are recovering debris from the objects and will work to determine their origin. Those shot down on Friday and Saturday were smaller and flew at a lower altitude of about 40,000 feet in commercial airspace compared to the first balloon at about 60,000 feet.

“The bottom line is, until a few months ago, we didn’t know about these balloons,” Schumer said. “This is a problem that we did not know about. Now we will learn a lot more. Both the military and intelligence services are primarily engaged in intelligence gathering, and then in-depth analysis.

Source: Associated Press.