Page 25 - The 'X' Chronicles Newspaper - February 2023 Edition

Canadian Weather Balloon or Spy Balloon? 25

When a weather balloon
went rogue almost 25

years ago, fighter jets fired
1,000 rounds at it and

couldn't bring it down

Almost 25 years ago, a large runaway
weather balloon proved to be quite

challenge a for a pair of fighter jets trying
to shoot it down, staying in the air even
after more than 1,000 rounds were fired
at it.

The research balloon was measuring
ozone levels above Canada, the
Associated Press reported at the time. It
went rogue in August 1998, passing

across Canada, over the Atlantic Ocean,
and through British airspace before
According to BBC reports from the time damage from a debris field. Experts have
entering Iceland's airspace and then
of the incident, the 300-ft helium balloon also said that actually shooting it down
drifting northward.
prompted air traffic controllers to divert may be more complicated than it seems.[]
and delay transatlantic flights. If deflated,
Two Royal Canadian Air Force CF-18
the balloon would cover an area of about
fighter aircraft spotted the balloon over DEBUNKED: There Is A
five football fields, The Irish Times
Newfoundland and fired more than 1,000 Killer Planet Called
reported.
rounds at it. The AP reported that the jets, “Nibiru”.
Canadian variants of the American F/A-
The US currently has a Chinese balloon,
18 Hornet, hit the balloon, but rather than
which Pentagon officials say is an
popping or exploding and crashing to the
intelligence-gathering spy balloon but
earth, it slowly began leaking helium.
China argues is a research asset, in its
The big balloon was still in the air.
airspace, and there have been questions
about shooting it down.
A Canadian military spokesperson, a
lieutenant named Steve Wills, told BBC
Brigadier Gen. Pat Ryder, the Pentagon
that it was difficult to target the balloon,
press secretary, said Thursday that the
even though it was about the size of a 25-
balloon is operating at a higher altitude
story building, and that the failure to take
than commercial air traffic and "does not
it out wasn't embarrassing.
present a military or physical threat to
people on the ground." Nonetheless, the
"With something like this, which is
US scrambled F-22 Raptors and other
stationary in the air when the CF-18s are
aircraft in response.
flying very, very fast, it is difficult to
shoot it," Wills said. Conspiracy theorists say another dangerous
Ryder said there were no current plans to planet is Nibiru, which was first mentioned
shoot down the balloon. Even with in the 1976 book "The Twelfth Planet
The CF-18s were reportedly equipped
protective measures, "it was the judgment (opens in new tab)," by Zecharia Sitchin. In
with air-to-air missiles, but Canadian
of our military commanders that we the book, Sitchin translated ancient
Major Roland Lavoie told AP the pilots Sumerian cuneiform and claimed that the
didn't drive the risk down low enough, so
refrained from using them. text is proof of a planet beyond Neptune
we didn't take the shot," he said.
called Nibiru that orbits the sun every 3,600
"Citizens would not have appreciated years.
Ryder also said there were multiple
having a missile blowing over their
recommendations from senior Years later, self-proclaimed psychic Nancy
heads,″ he said. "Also, it might be
Department of Defense officials "not to Lieder claimed to have communicated with
overkill spending a couple of hundred
take kinetic action due to the risk to extraterrestrials who said Nibiru would
thousand dollars on a missile to shoot
safety and security of people on the collide with Earth in 2003. When that didn't
down a balloon that's drifting away."
ground from the possible debris field." happen, the date was moved to 2012 (and
linked, of course, with the 2012 doomsday
The balloon, BBC reported, also survived predictions). Of course, the collision never
"We wanted to, you know, take care that
encounters with British and American occurred, the world didn't end in 2012 and
somebody didn't get hurt or property
aircraft. no astronomer has ever found a planet on a
wasn't destroyed," he said, detailing that collision course with Earth.
the balloon is large enough to cause