‘Unidentified object’ shot down over Lake Huron last year may have been weather-monitoring equipment

Newly obtained documents reveal more information about an “unidentified object” shot down by the Minnesota National Guard last year.

On Feb. 12, 2023, Gov. Tim Walz confirmed airmen from the 148th Fighter Wing took off from Madison, Wis. and shot down a flying object over Lake Huron as part of a federal mission.

Pentagon officials said the object was first detected over Montana but it was originally thought to be an anomaly. Radar then detected the object again over the Upper Peninsula of Michigan before jets shot it down over Lake Huron.

According to CTV News, the object was described as “octagonal” with stings hanging off of it and was slowly descending into Canadian waters before being hit by a missile. Officials say it was a suspected balloon that did not pose a military threat but could have interfered with domestic air traffic.

The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) conducted a brief search that involved the American and Canadian coast guards but it was suspended on Feb. 16, 2023 due to the weather and a low chance of recovery.

However, according to partially redacted emails gathered by CTVNEWS.ca, the RCMP collected debris along the shores of Lake Huron in early March 2023.

“Following reports of unidentified aerial objects observed in the Great Lakes area and elsewhere in North America, multiple searches were conducted by the RCMP with the support of the Canadian Armed Forces,” an RCMP spokesperson said in a statement to CTVNews.ca. “Debris has been recovered from the shores of Lake Huron but after careful analysis, it was determined not to be of national security concern.”

The new discovery was never made public.

“The module is from a company who sells weather monitoring equipment,” a senior RCMP member told a Canadian military brigadier-general in a March 13, 2023, email. “It will be analyzed to determine if there is anything unusual with it but I suspect not given the size. Whether or not it is from the shoot down is uncertain.”

It is still unclear whether the debris was positively connected to the Lake Huron object.

The U.S. shot down multiple high-altitude objects early last year, including a Chinese surveillance balloon off the coast of South Carolina.