U.S. military tracking mysterious balloon near Hawaii

The U.S. military is tracking another mysterious balloon found flying within American airspace near the coast of Hawaii this week, the Department of Defense said. 

The DoD and Federal Aviation Administration detected the balloon last Friday as it was traveling at an altitude of 36,000 feet off the coast of Hawaii, authorities said.  

The balloon poses no national security threat and did not fly over any sensitive areas, the DOD said. However, it is still unclear who owns the flying object. 

“Although it was flying at an altitude used by civil aviation, it posed no threat to civil aviation over Hawaii,” a DOD spokesperson said in a statement.

“Based on these observations, the Secretary of Defense concurred with the recommendation of his military commanders that no action need be taken against the balloon. The balloon is now out of Hawaii’s airspace and territorial waters,” the statement continues. 

A Chinese balloon was found flying within U.S. airspace above Montana on January 28. Ultimately, the balloon was shot down with a missile fired from an F-22 fighter jet over the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of South Carolina on Feb. 4.

The State Department believed that the high-altitude balloon was “capable of conducting signals intelligence collection operations” and was part of a Chinese intelligence collection program.   

However, China has claimed the balloon was a civilian device used for meteorological research that strayed from its path and entered U.S. airspace accidentally. 

Following the incident with the Chinese balloon, the U.S. military shot down three other objects, which were later determined to be weather or hobby balloons. 

U.S. officials do not believe that this week’s balloon is Chinese property or is being controlled by a “foreign or adversarial actor” because it is not communicating signals and does not appear to have maneuverability. The balloon could still be shot down if it nears land, said one official.