Two Objects Shot Down By US May Never Be Identified. Search Called Off.

'The United States on Friday called off the search for two of the unidentified flying objects that the military shot out of the sky this month,' reports the New York Times.

NBC News adds that 'The end of recovery efforts could mean the country may never know what, exactly, the objects were, how they were propelled, and where they came from.'

The conclusion applies to airborne objects shot down by U.S. fighter jets Feb. 10 near Deadhorse, Alaska, and Feb. 12 over Lake Huron, off the coast of Michigan. 'The U.S. military, federal agencies, and Canadian partners conducted systematic searches of each area using a variety of capabilities, including airborne imagery and sensors, surface sensors and inspections, and subsurface scans, and did not locate debris,' the command said. Efforts in Deadhorse were hampered by Arctic conditions and sea ice instability, it said.

The recommendation does not cover the Feb. 4 takedown of what the United States has described as a Chinese spy balloon off the coast of South Carolina. Military officials said recovery efforts in the Atlantic, which ended Thursday, were successful, and recovered items were taken to an FBI lab 'for counterintelligence exploitation,' according to the statement Friday.... One other incident involving the takedown of an airborne object took place in Canadian airspace Feb. 11 and is the purview of Canadian authorities.

The Biden administration announced Monday it was forming an interagency group to address the recent cluster and future unidentified objects.

The New York Times includes this response from National Security Council spokesman John F. Kirby:

Asked if the Biden administration overreacted in shooting down the objects or had any regrets, Mr. Kirby said the craft were at altitudes that could affect civilian aircraft and could have flown over military spaces.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.