Feb. 12 (UPI) — The Federal Aviation Administration on Sunday briefly closed airspace above Lake Michigan for Defense Department “activities.”
“The FAA briefly closed some airspace over Lake Michigan to support Department of Defense activities. The airspace has been reopened,” the FAA confirmed in a statement to UPI.
The FAA referred comment on the definition of “activities” and flight restrictions to support the Defense Department to the North American Aerospace Defense Command.
NORAD said in a statement on Twitter that it had implemented the flight restriction with the cooperation of the FAA around 12 p.m. EST to “ensure the safety of air traffic in the area during NORAD operations.”
Officials with NORAD did not clarify what those operations were in the statement.
The news came as Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said Sunday that the two latest high-altitude unmanned objects shot down over North America this past week were likely balloons similar to the Chinese surveillance balloon that crossed over U.S. airspace a week ago.
The U.S. military shot down a suspected balloon over Canada’s Yukon territory on Saturday under orders by both President Joe Biden and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau — day after high-altitude object was shot down over Alaska on Friday.
Earlier this month, a Chinese spy balloon was shot down over the Atlantic Ocean after it crossed over the United States.
