The Federal Aviation Administration on Saturday night temporarily closed airspace in Montana to support U.S. military operations, the agency said in a brief statement that came just hours after American fighter jets shot down a cylindrical UFO in the skies over Canada’s Yukon Territory.
It’s unclear exactly how long the airspace was closed. Officials said it was reopened later Saturday evening.
“The FAA closed some airspace in Montana to support Department of Defense activities. The airspace has been reopened,” the FAA said in a statement.
Rep. Matt Rosendale, Montana Republican, wrote on Twitter that the airspace was closed because of an object in the sky. It’s unclear if the ordeal over Montana is directly related to the Yukon shoot-down earlier Saturday or if it is a separate incident.
“I am in direct contact with [U.S. Northern Command] and monitoring the latest issue over Havre [Montana] and the northern border.
Airspace is closed due to an object that could interfere with commercial air traffic — the DoD will resume efforts to observe and ground the object in the morning,” Mr. Rosendale said in a Twitter message.
The brief airspace shutdown came just hours after a U.S. fighter aircraft shot down a “high altitude airborne object” flying over Canadian airspace on Saturday.
Canadian President Justin Trudeau said in a post on Twitter that Canadian and U.S. aircraft were scrambled after an unidentified object violated Canadian airspace. The object, later described by Canadian officials as a small “cylindrical” object, was shot down over Canada’s Yukon territory by a U.S. F-22 fighter.
It was the second UFO to be shot down in a roughly 24-hour period. On Friday, U.S. fighter jets shot down an unidentified object over Alaskan coastal waters.
Both of those objects were described as being much smaller than the massive Chinese surveillance balloon that traveled over the U.S. last week before it was shot down off the coast of South Carolina.
• Ben Wolfgang can be reached at bwolfgang@washingtontimes.com.