A white balloon has reportedly been spotted flying close to Hawaii, which comes after the U.S. military shot down a Chinese spy balloon near South Carolina earlier this month.
The Oakland Oceanic Air Traffic Control Center on Sunday allegedly reported seeing a large white balloon over the Pacific Ocean, according to media organization BNO News. The object is said to have been spotted around 955 kilometers (594 miles) northeast of Hawaii’s capital city of Honolulu. In a message to pilots, the air traffic control said that the balloon was flying at an altitude of around 12,000 to 15,000 meters (40,000 to 50,000 feet). “Advice [air traffic control] if object is seen,” the message said.
The coordinates mentioned would put the balloon in international airspace and a region where air traffic control is handled by the United States, the outlet added.
“Some Commercial Flights flying through the area have reported through ACARS seeing the Large white Balloon at an altitude between FL400 to FL500,” according to a Feb. 20 tweet by FL360 Aero, an aviation news media. ACARS stands for Aircraft Communication Addressing and Reporting System.
In February 2022, an object was found floating in the vicinity of Hawaiian islands over Kauai. In a tweet from Feb. 17, 2022, Kenneth S Hara, Adjunct General for the State of Hawaii, said that the Pacific Air Forces launched “tactical aircraft to intercept and identify the object.”
The object was confirmed to be an unmanned balloon. Kauai is home to the Pacific Missile Range Facility, which is the largest multi-dimensional testing and training missile range in the world.
On Feb. 4 this year, an American aircraft brought down a Chinese spy balloon that was traveling near the coast of South Carolina. The balloon had triggered tensions between Washington and Beijing, with the Secretary of State canceling his trip to China.
The Chinese spy balloon is said to have traveled nearby to at least three vital nuclear sites in the United States. This includes the Offutt Air Force Base in Nebraska which is home to the U.S. Strategic Command, Malmstrom Air Force Base in Montana overseeing 150 nuclear-capable intercontinental ballistic missile silos, and Whiteman Air Force Base in Missouri which operates the Air Force’s B-2 bomber.
Since the Feb. 4 incident, the United States has shot down multiple unidentified objects, though the nature of these objects has not been fully identified.
On Feb. 11, the Northern Illinois Bottlecap Balloon Brigade (NIBBB) reported that it had lost contact with a hobby balloon. On the same day, the U.S. military shot down an unidentified object in the general vicinity at an altitude of 40,000 feet.
The military had used a $400,000 missile to shoot down the object. The NIBBB’s hobby balloon reportedly only cost $12. When asked for more details about the unidentified object it shot down, the Department of Defense said in an email that “we have nothing to provide on this.”
Two more unidentified objects were shot down by the military using the $400,000 missiles. In total, four missiles were spent by the military to bring down the three unidentified objects, with the total cost of these missiles coming in at over $1.6 million. The military action against the unidentified objects attracted ridicule online.
“Biden let an actual Chinese spy balloon cross 2,000 miles of American airspace untouched. Now he fakes being tough by shooting down a $12 science project from the (I kid you not) Northern Illinois Bottlecap Balloon Brigade,” Charlie Kirk, founder of nonprofit conservative organization Turning Point USA, said in a Feb. 17 tweet.
“To be fair, Biden is providing is powerful deterrence for any high school science clubs that might try to invade America,” Senator Ted Cruz (R-Tex.) said in another tweet.