Canada has released a first-ever image of the UFO shot down during the chase over Alaska and the Yukon territory that followed the now infamous Chinese spy balloon drama of February 2023.
The unusual, grainy and apparently xeroxed or printed photo depicts a seemingly circular white object with ill-defined edges — shot down by a US Air Force F-22 stealth fighter on a joint mission with the Canadian Armed Forces.
One unusual feature of the newly released UFO photo is that it had already been designated as ‘unclassified’ within just days of the now 19-month-old incident.
A possible reason, as one public affairs official with Canada’s Department of National Defence (DND) warned colleagues, was internal fears that releasing this unclassified UFO image ‘may create more questions/confusion.’
Canada has released the first-ever image of the UFO shot down during a chase above Alaska and the Yukon that followed the Chinese spy balloon drama of February 2023 (above)
The odd pic shows a seemingly circular white object that had been shot down by a US Air Force F-22 Raptor stealth fighter in a joint mission with the Canadian Armed Forces. Above, another USAF F-22 Raptor during an air show over Toronto, Canada on August 31, 2024
This official, a director of e-communications for Canadian DND named Taylor Paxton, advised military colleagues that this confusion would be inevitable ‘given the current public environment and statements related to the object being benign.’
Paxton suggested that any move by the Royal Canadian Air Force to publish the photo on social media would likely only raise more inquiries from the general public and the press ‘regardless of the text that will accompany the post.’
The emails, obtained along with the eerie new UFO photo by CTVNews.ca reporter Daniel Otis via an open records law request, also included efforts by members of Canada’s armed forces to better understand the craft that had been shot down.
One email from Canadian Brigadier-General Eric Laforest described the UFO as a ‘cylindrical object.’
‘Top quarter is metallic, remainder white. 20-foot wire hanging below with a package of some sort suspended,’ Brig. Gen. Laforest wrote. ‘Best description that we have.’
The suspected spy balloon was one of four airborne objects gunned out of the sky by the US over eight days of February 2023. One unusual feature of the newly released UFO photo is that it had already been designated ‘unclassified’ within just days of these 19-month-old incidents
A possible reason, as one public affairs official with Canada’s Department of National Defence (DND) warned colleagues, was the Canadian military’s own internal fears that releasing this UFO image ‘may create more questions/confusion’
Dark portions visible along the top center of the UFO in this newly released image may depict either that upper metallic region or the remains of the alleged ‘package.’
But this release only adds more mystery to the wave of espionage-tinted UFO activity that surrounded the confirmed downing of an authentic Chinese-government spy balloon earlier that month off the coast of North Carolina’s Myrtle Beach.
Iain Boyd, a professor of aerospace engineering and director of the Center for National Security Initiatives at the University of Colorado, described the Canadian government’s reticence to release the image as an issue of national security — despite the image’s ‘unclassified’ designation.
‘It comes down to these episodes illustrating a potential vulnerability in the U.S./Canada defensive system,’ Boyd opined.
‘Certainly the failure to provide more information has fed conspiracy theories,’ as he told CTVNews.ca, ‘but the military will likely accept that outcome over disclosing information that may help an adversary identify defensive weaknesses.’
According to the report for CTV News, the network’s journalists plan to petition the Canadian military for a higher resolution version of this UFO image.
