A recent incident involving an unidentified flying object, which was downed by a US Air Force jet in Alaska using a $400,000 Sidewinder missile, may have been caused by a $12 hobby balloon launched by a hobby group in Illinois. The Northern Illinois Bottlecap Balloon Brigade (NIBBB) had reported one of its balloons, the ‘K9YO’, missing on 11th February, near the coast of southwest Alaska, around the same time that the unidentified object was downed. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau had also announced that an “unidentified object” had been downed over Canada’s Yukon territory, which is several hundred miles from K9YO’s last known location. According to modeling shared by NIBBB, its balloon was headed in the direction of Yukon before it vanished, opening up the possibility that it could have been one of the suspicious objects downed by the US military.
Balloons used by hobby groups often fit the same description as the object shot down by the US military, which was described as a cylindrical, metallic balloon with a payload. Such balloons are often attached with a small, solar-powered payload that transmits location data back to listening posts on the ground, and are usually no larger than a credit card. The NIBBB has not confirmed that its balloon was definitely the downed object, but Aviation Week’s analysis of the circumstantial evidence suggests that the possibility remains wide open.
Contrary to posing a military or surveillance threat, the “pico balloons” launched by hobby groups like NIBBB often only relay location data or information about the weather. They remain afloat until they’re brought down by bad weather or are damaged. The K9YO balloon was airborne for 123 days.
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