The truth is out there, Mulder.
When he notices a circular object in the sky on Wednesday, Chase Doak "immediately catches two colleagues", he tells
20 Minutes
.
"To make sure I wasn't hallucinating."
The mysterious object looks like a miniature full moon, about four times smaller in diameter.
It remains motionless in the sky.
Chase just read that the planes in the area are grounded.
"At first I thought it was a UFO," says this
data analyst
who lives in Billings, the largest city in Montana, in the great American West.
A former photojournalist, Chase returns home and grabs a 500mm lens, with a 2x focal multiplier, and immortalizes the object on video, then in a more detailed photo.
He then thinks he recognizes "a kind of super weather balloon", with what looks like solar panels.
“I was able to observe it for about 45 minutes before the sun set and no longer illuminated it,” he explains.
A spy balloon as big as “three buses”
Chase does not know it then, but this mysterious object will make the front page of American newspapers and TV less than 24 hours later.
At the end of the afternoon, Thursday, the Pentagon announces that it has been monitoring for several days a Chinese spy balloon, which flew over Alaska and then, on Wednesday, Montana.
Joe Biden asked the Pentagon if he could be shot.
According to NBC News, two F-22 Raptors took off from Nevada and approached the object on Wednesday.
But American military officials finally gave up, believing that the risks, with potential debris, were too great for the population on the ground, with a balloon “as big as three buses”.
"Clearly, this balloon is intended for surveillance and its current trajectory takes it over sensitive sites" including air bases and strategic missile silos, an American official told AFP.
Unfortunate, three days before the planned visit of Secretary of State Antony Blinken to China.
World
The Pentagon monitors a Chinese spy balloon over the United States and has ruled out shooting it down
World
UNITED STATES
China
Spying
Washington
Joe Biden