At around 3:20 p.m. on Saturday, February 11, 2023, the Federal Aviation Administration temporarily closed some airspace in Montana for "Department of Defense activities."
The FAA issued a notice for flight restrictions in an area over the city of Havre along Montana's Hi-Line. The airspace was reopened within about one hour.
Member of Montana's Congressional delegation posted on Twitter about the incident.
U.S. Senator Jon Tester posted: "I am aware of the object in Montana air space and remain in close contact with senior DOD and Administration officials. I am closely monitoring the situation and am receiving regular updates. I will continue to demand answers for the American public."
U.S. Senator Steve Daines posted: "I’m in direct contact with the Pentagon regarding the object in Montana’s airspace and will receive frequent updates. Montanans still have questions about the Chinese spy balloon that flew over our state last week. I’ll continue to demand answers on these invasions of US airspace.”
U.S. Representative Matt Rosendale posted: "I am in direct contact with NORCOM and monitoring the latest issue over Havre and the northern border. Airspace is closed due to an object that could interfere with commercial air traffic — the DOD will resume efforts to observe and ground the object in the morning."
A short time later, North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) released the following statement regarding the airspace closure over Havre:
NORAD detected a radar anomaly and sent fighter aircraft to investigate. Those aircraft did not identify any object to correlate to the radar hits. NORAD will continue to monitor the situation.
The false alarm and response comes on the same day that an "unidentified object" was shot down over western Canada. The object was shot down by a U.S. military F-22 fighter jet over the Yukon, according to Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. Click here for more information.
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