Balloon Mystery

The mystery of the giant balloons floating over America has a grip on the entire nation. With questions like who do these balloons belong to? What exactly are they? Are they a threat? No one seems to quite know what’s going on. 

The first report of one of these balloons was on January 28, when it entered US airspace above Alaska. A few days later, residents of Montana began reporting sightings of large white objects in the sky. On February 4, the US shot the balloon down off the coast of South Carolina. After a briefing, the US claimed the balloon was a Chinese surveillance balloon. Whereas China stands by saying it was a civilian aircraft, and the US’s reaction was “excessive.” The US began recovery of the balloon the next day and it is currently being examined in Virginia. 

However, this story gets stranger, as within the next week, 3 more unidentified aircraft were reported in North America. All three, one over Alaska, one over Canada, and the final over Lake Huron, were all shot down. The Defense Department released a statement saying none of the aircraft were spyware, but all posed danger to civilian flights, therefore could be shot down. Connor Moseley, a Junior at Palisade, commented on the balloons, “That stuff is crazy, it’s scary cause they could be watching us.And what if they're not Chinese, like what if they’re UFO’s.” 

Whatever these balloons are, they certainly are causing a lot of confusion and tension between these countries and the people.