The US military intercepted a small balloon over Utah on Friday and determined it did not pose a threat to civil aviation or national security, a US official told Reuters.

The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, also explained that the balloon could not maneuver on its own while traveling between 43,000 and 45,000 feet (13,100 and 13,700 meters). However, the official did not provide additional details about the balloon, including whether it could have been a simple hobby balloon.

The North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) did not respond to a request for comment on the incident, Reuters reports.

The news agency reminds that a year ago, an American fighter jet shot down, according to the Pentagon, a Chinese reconnaissance ball capable of gathering information over the United States near the coast of South Carolina.

The incident further strained US relations with China, which has denied using the balloon to spy on the US. Instead, China argued that the balloon was being used for meteorological purposes and that it entered US airspace “completely by accident”.