MEAWW.COM / NEWS / HUMAN INTEREST

‘What a joke our government is’: Trolls galore as hobby group claims US used $400K missiles to shoot down $12 balloon

The Northern Illinois Bottlecap Balloon Brigade (NIBBB) says one of its balloons went MIA in the same region the US shot down an unknown object

YUKON, CANADA: A US F-22 fighter jet shot down an unidentified flying object on February 11, which was first spotted over Alaska on February 10 as per Pentagon. Following this, the White House confirmed that Canadian president Justin Trudeau and US President Joe Biden authorized the shoot-down using an AIM-9X missile worth $400K. Now a group of hobbyists called the Northern Illinois Bottlecap Balloon Brigade (NIBBB) says one of its balloons, which cost between $12 and $180, went “missing in action” in the same region the U.S. military shot down one of the three unknown objects. 

On Thursday, February 16, a report by Aviation Week suggested that three unidentified objects shot down between February 10 and 12 matched the description of NIBBB's silver-coated, party-style 'pico balloon.' The NIBBB in a blog post states that one of their balloons, which went missing, was last spotted at 12:48 am on February 11 near Hagemeister Island, Alaska.

READ MORE

What is an 'Outside Context Problem'? Doomsday scenario trends after F-22s hunt 'UFOs' over US

'Has to be aliens': Memes galore as US shoots down another 'high-altitude object' over Alaska

'They pose no threat to any country'

According to Aviation Week, following the shoot down, there have been suspicions among members of the small, pico-ballooning enthusiasts’ community, Ron Meadows, the founder of Scientific Balloon Solutions (SBS), a Silicon Valley company that makes purpose-built pico balloons for hobbyists, educators and scientists, said, “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.” Tom Medlin, a retired FedEx engineer and co-host of the Amateur Radio Roundtable show, also claimed, "I’m guessing probably they were pico balloons." He currently has three of them flying across the world.

In an interview with The Independent, Meadows said, "You have to remember that these balloons are designed to carry extremely light payloads – ten to 20 grams – the size of a popsicle stick." He added that they only send out their location and don’t have any cameras and added, "They pose no threat to any country ... I can’t stress that enough." A spokesperson for North American Aerospace Defense Command told The Independent, “I have no information for you from NORAD on the objects ... I expect the NSC task force to have more on the potential identification of the objects."

US F-22 shot down object in Canadian territory

Commenting on it, Trudeau on February 12 took it to Twitter and wrote, "I ordered the take down of an unidentified object that violated Canadian airspace. @NORADCommand shot down the object over the Yukon. Canadian and US aircraft were scrambled, and a US F-22 successfully fired at the object." He added, "I spoke with President Biden this afternoon. Canadian Forces will now recover and analyze the wreckage of the object. Thank you to NORAD for keeping the watch over North America." While the White House said in a statement, "The leaders discussed the importance of recovering the object in order to determine more details on its purpose or origin," reports Reuters.

'We are ruled by a fool'

However, following the latest update, netizens were quick to react. A user commented, "Our government may very well have launched $400,000 missiles to shoot down $18-$200 balloons put into the air by a group called the "Northern Illinois Bottlecap Balloon Brigade." Another took a dig at Biden by saying, "First Biden lets a legit Chinese spy balloon fly all the way across the U.S. Then to show he’s tough, he starts shooting down $12 projects launched by (I kid you not) “the Northern Illinois Bottlecap Balloon Brigade“ with $400,000 missiles!" 

One of many said, "How can our military be reduced to this? We are ruled by a fool." Another said, "So it turns out China wasn’t trying to embarrass our president, it was a bunch of cowboys in Missouri! Bottle-cap Balloon Brigade - a hobby group - claims its $13 weather balloon was what our F-22 brought down with $400k missile." Another pointed out, "It should be noted that this $12 hobby balloon was shot at twice. First missile missed so actually our government spent $800k to shoot down a $12 hobby balloon. What a joke our government is."

This article contains remarks made on the Internet by individual people and organizations. MEAWW cannot confirm them independently and does not support claims or opinions being made online.