US suspects three downed UFOs were ‘benign’
US officials have said there is no indication the three downed objects over the weekend are linked to alleged Chinese spying.
The first object shot down is said to be a Chinese spy balloon and the other three are likely to be “tied to commercial or research entities and therefore benign”, spokesman John Kirby said.
The three other objects have still not been recovered, US and Canadian officials are searching for any wreckage from the three objects.
Beijing earlier accused the US of “a trigger-happy overreaction.”
China has denied the first object was a spy balloon and argue that it was merely a weather-monitoring airship that had blown off course.
The balloon was shot down by a US fighter jet off South Carolina.
Balloons tied to commercial or research entities
During Tuesday’s news conference, Mr Kirby said it will be difficult to determine the purpose or origin of the three other objects that were downed over Alaska, Canada and Michigan until the debris has been recovered.
“We haven’t seen any indication or anything that points specifically to the idea that these three objects were part of the PRC’s [People’s Republic of China] spying programme,” the White House National Security Council told reporters, “or that they were definitively involved in external intelligence collection efforts”.
A “leading explanation” being considered by US intelligence, he added, was that “these could be balloons that were simply tied to commercial or research entities and therefore benign”.
He noted that no company, organisation or government has yet claimed the objects.
China criticises US response
Meanwhile, a spokesman for China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs criticised the US response.
“Many in the US have been asking, ‘what good can such costly action possibly bring to the US and its taxpayers?'” said Wang Wenbin on Tuesday.
The alleged Chinese spy balloon
Sensors from the alleged spy balloon, which was shot out of the sky on 4 February were recovered from the Atlantic Ocean on Monday.
The balloon was being tracked by US intelligence since its lift-off from a base on Hainan Island on the south coast of China earlier this month, US media reports. Unnamed officials have said the path the balloon took indicates that it could have blown off course by weather, but it was back under Chinese control by the time it reached the US.
Sensors and other debris was found from the downed alleged spy balloon and is currently being examined by the FBI.
