UFO shot down by US Air Force with $4,85,000 missile last week may have been $12 balloon

The UFOs shot down by the US Air Force last week with a $485,000 AIM-9X Sidewinder missile could have been a $12 balloon, Northern Illinois Bottlecap Balloon Brigade told Aviation Week. The balloon belongs to the Illinois enthusiast club, the source said. The so-called "mystery" unmanned object taken out by the military over Canada may have gone missing last week. There have also been "unsubstantiated" assumptions among Americans that the recently shot-down UFO, which may be a Pico Balloon—belonged to extra-terrestrial beings. The balloon went adrift in the direction of the winds and was spotted 38,910 feet off the west coast of Alaska. 

Pentagon scrambled Lockheed Martin F-22 to shoot down balloon 

The US Department of Defense scrambled Lockheed Martin F-22 to shoot down the unidentified object. The amateur ballooning club, however, told the outlet that the 'unidentified object' shot down over Canada's Yukon territory a week ago, was their weather balloon. The Northern Illinois Bottlecap Balloon Brigade was formed by 10 friends two years ago. The club's nae was inspired by the children's movie 'Up'. 

"When I heard that [it was a] silver object with a payload attached to it, that could be one of our balloons," a member of the Northern Illinois Bottlecap Balloon Brigade, who spoke requesting anonymity with Politico, said. 

Balloon club's member noted that they were aware that the balloon had flown off the coast of Alaska. "We know where it was if all was well," the anonymous member said. "We know that it didn't wake up that morning. We know they shot something down, and the thing they described as having shot down is not inconsistent with what we're flying out there. So, that's that," he went on to add. The NIBBB club that releases and tracks homemade balloons also declared last week that its K9YO device was “missing in action." 

In a statement made this week, US President Joe Biden had acknowledged that one of the balloons shot down among the total three "did not appear to be hostile." "The intelligence community's current assessment is that these three objects were most likely balloons tied to private companies, recreation or research institutions studying weather or conducting other scientific research," Biden said. Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said at the White House presser that the US "never found the debris from the balloon." 

"We haven't recovered it so it's very difficult until you can get your hands on something to be able to tell. I mean we all have to accept the possibility that we may not be able to recover it," said Kirby.