U.S. military shoots down third unidentified flying object over Lake Huron

The U.S. military shot down an unidentified flying object over Lake Huron on Sunday, the Pentagon says days after three other objects were shot down. 

The unidentified object was shot down by an F-16 fighter jet at around 2:42 p.m. local time over Lake Huron over the U.S.-Canada Border, said Pentagon spokesperson Patrick Ryder. The object fell into Canadian waters. 

While the object did not pose a military threat, it was traveling at an altitude of 20,000 feet (6,100 meters) and could interfere with domestic air traffic. Ryder added that the object could have had surveillance capabilities as well.  

According to U.S. Air Force general Glen VanHerck, the military has not been able to identify what the objects are, how they fly, or where they are coming from. 

"We're calling them objects, not balloons, for a reason," VanHerck, head of North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) and Northern Command, told reporters. 

The most recent flying object seemed to be shaped like an octagon and had strings hanging off of it, an anonymous U.S. official said. 

On February 4, the U.S. military shot down a suspected Chinese surveillance balloon off the coast of South Carolina using an F-22 fighter jet after it had traveled across the continental U.S. for about a week.

Since the incident with the Chinese spy balloon, the U.S. military has shot down three other unidentified flying objects in three days, including the one over Lake Huron. 

On Friday, the U.S. military shot down an unidentified object about the size of a car flying over the coast of northern Alaska. On Saturday, an object similar to the one detected over Lake Huron was found flying over military sites in Montana.