False: The United States Air Force has shot down a UFO over Lake Huron.

By: Sandesh M
February 20 2023

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Context

After the U.S. Air Force took down a Chinese spy balloon on February 6, three more unidentified objects were shot down within one week. Since the first balloon was spotted in Montana on January 28, several questionable videos and claims have appeared on social media. A Twitter user claimed that the United States Air Force had shot down another UFO over Lake Huron. The tweet accompanied a video that showed a bright object in the sky with a long vapor trail behind it. The caption read that there were four objects over U.S. skies, indicating those were likely UFOs. However, there is no evidence to back this claim.

In Fact

Firstly, in the viral video, we could hear people in the background talking in Korean, which indicated that it was not from the U.S. We did a reverse image search using the frames from the viral video and came across a news report by Associated Press from December 2022. The report contained a photo of the rocket launch conducted by South Korea's military that was test-fired on Friday, December 30, 2022. The description read, "A twisty tendril of vapor in white-to-red ombre could be seen snaking behind a bright white light in parts of South Korea's sky Friday evening." 

According to the report, the launch had not been notified to the public, triggering a scare of it being a suspected UFO or a North Korean missile launch. The same clip has now been shared by social media users, linking it to the recent balloon incidents in the U.S. 

A Korean YouTube channel SBS News had also reported that the video was of a space launch vehicle test flight. The video uploaded on December 30 matches the visuals from the recent viral images on social media.

The LA Times reported that President Joe Biden on February 16 addressed the media about the unidentified objects and their subsequent shooting down. Biden said that the first was a suspected Chinese spy balloon, and the other three objects were either recreational or tied to research institutions.

CNN reported on February 12 that the U.S. military shot down an unidentified high-altitude object in North American airspace over Lake Huron, but U.S. officials were not ready to characterize the object. It did not resemble the Chinese balloon and was smaller in size. Canadian Defense Minister Anita Anand said the thing appeared to be a "cylindrical object." Further, the U.S. military was collecting the debris, which would help understand the objects' nature.

The Verdict

The video claimed to be a UFO over Lake Huron is old footage from a missile launch in South Korea. Officials in the U.S. are still studying the objects, but evidence suggests they are either recreational or tied to research institutions. There is no proof that the objects are UFOs. Therefore, we have marked this claim as false.