By Trevor Hunnicutt and Nandita Bose
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The White House said on Monday there is no indication of aliens or extraterrestrial activity after a series of shoot-downs of unidentified objects over North American airspace.
“I know there have been questions and concerns about this, but there is no, again no indication of aliens or extraterrestrial activity with these recent takedowns,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said.
On Sunday, a U.S. Air Force general said he would not rule out aliens or any other explanation yet, deferring to U.S. intelligence experts.
The general’s comments came during a Pentagon briefing on Sunday after a U.S. F-16 fighter jet shot down an octagonal-shaped object over Lake Huron on the U.S.-Canada border. It was the third shootdown of an unidentified object following the Feb. 4 downing of a Chinese balloon off the South Carolina coast that put North American air defenses on high alert.
U.S. officials said that balloon was being used for surveillance.
Another U.S. defense official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the military had seen no evidence suggesting any of the objects in question were of extraterrestrial origin.
“I don’t think the American people need to worry about aliens with respect to these crafts, period,” White House spokesman John Kirby said during a White House briefing with reporters on Monday.
The incidents come as the Pentagon has undertaken a new push in recent years to investigate military sightings of UFOs – rebranded in official government parlance as “unidentified aerial phenomena,” or UAPs.
The government’s effort to investigate anomalous, unidentified objects – whether they are in space, the skies or even underwater – has led to hundreds of documented reports that are being investigated, senior military leaders have said.
(Reporting by Trevor Hunnicutt and Nandita Bose in Washington; Editing by Chris Reese and Leslie Adler)
