{"id":21314,"date":"2023-02-15T23:58:24","date_gmt":"2023-02-16T04:58:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ops.group\/blog\/?p=21314"},"modified":"2023-02-16T06:49:51","modified_gmt":"2023-02-16T11:49:51","slug":"beware-big-balloons","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ops.group\/blog\/beware-big-balloons\/","title":{"rendered":"Beware Big Balloons"},"content":{"rendered":"

It started with a balloon. A rather large one, sent by the Chinese for ‘purposes unknown’, and rapidly removed from the skies as soon as it became safe to do so.<\/p>\n

However, there has been a spate of further ‘unidentified objects’ wafting about the upper levels of the northern American atmosphere, and they are potentially something of a hazard.<\/p>\n

The Balloon<\/h4>\n

This was spotted over the US, working its way northwards around February 3.<\/p>\n

There isn’t much to say on this that hasn’t already been said – it was big, it came from China<\/strong> and it was almost definitely not one that had just accidentally drifted of course. Politics and conspiracies aside, this did not post much of a risk for civilian aviation because of the altitude it was operating at.<\/p>\n

The (probably a) surveillance balloon<\/strong> operated from around 80,000 to 100,000′<\/strong> – well above the levels which would impact commercial airliners.<\/p>\n

Object Number 2<\/h4>\n

On February 10<\/strong>, an unidentified object was spotted overflying the northern coast of Alaska<\/strong> towards the North Pole region, at around 40,000′, moving at approximately 20-40mph.<\/p>\n

It was deemed a “reasonable threat”<\/strong> to civilian aviation due to its size and altitude, despite being quite a bit smaller than the Chinese Balloon (very big, these sort of small car sized).<\/p>\n

Reports suggest several aircraft were diverted, with one stopping at PANC\/Anchorage and another to PAOM\/Nome due to airspace closures.<\/p>\n

\"\"

Image from BBC: Getty<\/p><\/div>\n

Object Number 3<\/h4>\n

Another object was spotted and shot down on February 11<\/strong>.\u00a0This one was routing over Canada, approximately 100 miles from the US border<\/strong>, and at around 40,000′<\/p>\n

The airspace over the Great Lakes region was closed while the object was taken down, but a Canadian TFR is still in force in the area.<\/p>\n

The Notams and TFRs<\/a> related to this are labelled ‘active air defense operation’.<\/p>\n

\"\"

Object spotting map<\/p><\/div>\n

Object Number 4<\/h4>\n

The third of the smaller UFOs (yep, I said it, but just mean unidentified flying object) occurred on February 13<\/strong>, near to Lake Huron<\/strong> which shares a border with Canada.<\/p>\n

There are unverified reports suggesting pilots reported interference from it with their “sensors”.<\/p>\n

The FAA temporarily shut down a chunk of airspace over Northern Wisconsin and Northern Michigan to ‘support Department of Defense activities’.<\/em> \u00a0Reopened now, but the a smaller TFR remains in place.<\/p>\n

\"\"Risk for aviation<\/h4>\n

The objects are generally cruising at around 40,000′ <\/strong>– well within the altitude range commercial airliners operate at. They pose a hazard<\/strong> because of their size and speed.<\/p>\n

However, they are ‘spotted’ easily and early, and both the US and Canada are maintaining a constant watch for further objects.<\/p>\n

Crew operating in these areas should be aware of the ongoing possibility for further hazards. Report sightings to ATC.<\/strong><\/p>\n

If an object is identified, expect possible re-routes around the surrounding ‘Danger’ area whilst military traffic operates to deal with it.<\/p>\n

It isn’t just the US..<\/h4>\n

Moldova closed the LUUU\/Chisinau FIR on Feb 14, reportedly because of a “balloon shaped object”. And on Feb 10, they had concerns with a Russian missile reportedly crossing their airspace…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It started with a balloon. A rather large one, sent by the Chinese for ‘purposes…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":51,"featured_media":21373,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[2165,1872],"class_list":{"0":"post-21314","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-briefings","8":"tag-balloon","9":"tag-ufo"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ops.group\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21314","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ops.group\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ops.group\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ops.group\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/51"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ops.group\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21314"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/ops.group\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21314\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21372,"href":"https:\/\/ops.group\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21314\/revisions\/21372"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ops.group\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21373"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ops.group\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21314"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ops.group\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21314"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ops.group\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21314"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}