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A hobbyist club's "missing" balloon is believed to be among the mysterious objects shot down by the United States military recently.
The Northern Illinois Bottlecap Balloon Brigade's silver-coated pico balloon last reported its position at 38,910 feet on February 10 off the west coast of Alaska, according to Aviation Week. The HYPSPLIT model forecasting tool, which is provided by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, projected the balloon would have floated over the Yukon Territory on February 11, which is when a Lockheed Martin F-22 shot down an unidentified object that had a similar description and reported flight pattern.
“I tried contacting our military and the FBI—and just got the runaround—to try to enlighten them on what a lot of these things probably are. And they’re going to look not too intelligent to be shooting them down,” said Ron Meadows, the founder of Scientific Balloon Solutions (SBS), which is a Silicon Valley based company that produces pico balloons for hobbyists, scientists and teachers.
All three of the unidentified flying objects shot down between February 10 and February 12 are reported to have had similar shapes, altitudes and payloads to pico balloons, which are reported to be sold for a varying price between $12 and $180.
Aviation Week said it reached out to several government agencies including the FBI, North American Aerospace Defense Command, the National Security Council and the Office of the Secretary of Defense to address the possibility of the mysterious objects shot down by the U.S. Air Force actually being pico balloons.
“I have no update for you from NORAD on these objects,” a NORAD spokesman said, according to the website.
NSC spokesman John Kirby had previously stated that all three objects “could just be balloons tied to some commercial or benign purpose" while addressing the situation on February 15, however, didn't specifically mention pico balloons at the time.