WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) – The US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) temporarily closed part of the airspace over Lake Michigan in the north of the United States on Sunday. The North American Air Defense Command Norad said on Twitter that in cooperation with the FAA, air traffic over the area had been temporarily restricted to ensure safety during a Norad mission. The restriction has since been lifted. More details about the background were not initially given.
A temporary closure of airspace over the US state of Montana only caused a stir on Saturday. The background was a “radar anomaly”, Norad later announced. Warplanes were sent to investigate. However, the aircraft could not have identified an object that could be linked to the radar hits.
American airspace is currently under special surveillance. US fighter jets shot down two unidentified flying objects on Friday and Saturday: one off the coast of the US state of Alaska, the other over northern Canada. So far it is unclear what kind of objects they were, where they came from and what their goal was. The salvage of the remains of the flying objects should provide information.
The incidents were reminiscent of a Chinese balloon suspected of being used for espionage purposes that the US Air Force had brought down from the sky off the coast of the state of South Carolina a week earlier. It was initially unclear whether there was a connection. The US government accuses China of using the observation balloon to spy on military installations. Beijing, on the other hand, spoke of a civilian research balloon that had gone off course./jac/DP/he