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Wales Online
Wales Online
National
George Mathias & Nathan Russell

USAF F-16 pilot says shot down 'octagonal unidentified object' was 'not a balloon'

Audio of pilots debating what exactly they were seeing moments before a US F-16 fighter jet shot down an 'unidentfied object' over Lake Huron has been released, The Daily Star reports. Top ranking officials remain clueless as to what the object shot down on Sunday was, as it is the third in the past few days.

An exchange can be heard between the pilots as they hurtle through the air, in which one says: "I wouldn't really call it a balloon... I don't know what... I can see it outside with my eyes." Military officials have described the object as an "octagonal structure".

The pilots, understandably stunned, begin debating what the odd object should be named. "I'm gonna call it like a container," says one of the pilots. "Can't really tell though what the shape is. The size of it, that would be challenging, it's so slow and so small, I just can't see it."

They next ponder the size of the object, with one describing it as "definitely smaller than a car", while another is the same size as a "four-wheeler".

The world of UFO enthusiasts has been swept up in the numerous sightings and shooting down of UFOs over United States airspace, with some questioning if extraterrestrials are behind them. An official US line saying the objects could potentially be extraterrestrial has given these theories some validity, but it also added that there was no evidence supporting this.

Following their successful mission, it was later revealed that the action cost the military nearly a million dollars. Each jet, which were at the cutting edge of military technology, cost $400,000 (£330,000), with the plane taking two attempts to remove the object from the sky.

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