Biden, Trudeau decline to continue search for objects shot down over Alaska, Lake Huron

According to a press release from the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) and the US Northern Command, search operations concluded Friday near Deadhorse, Alaska, and on Lake Huron, "as search activities have discovered no debris from airborne objects shot down on Feb. 10 and Feb. 12 2023."

The US military, along with other federal agencies as well as Canadian partners had conducted "systematic searches" of each area where the flying balloons were shot down using methods including airborne imagery, sensors, and subsurface scans. However, they were unable to locate any debris from the downed devices.

US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin concurred with the recommendation to stop the search, according to the joint statement.

US Northern Command worked with the Alaska National Guard, FBI, as well as the US Indo-Pacific Command in the Deadhorse area to try and locate the balloons, but "arctic conditions" and "sea ice instability" proved too formidable for the joint forces.

On Lake Huron, the Unified Command Group, with help from the US Coast Guard, FBI, Canadian Coast Guard, and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police also could not find debris from the out-of-commission balloon after multiple days of thorough searching.

Since the decision to halt the search-and-retrieve mission was made, the air safety perimeters set by NORAD were lifted in both areas.

As for the Chinese spy balloonshot down off the coast of South Carolina on Feb 4, the US Navy in partnership with the US Northern Command successfully located and retrieved the debris. CCP officials said the balloon was a civilian weather airship and demanded that the device be returned, but the official statement said the "final pieces of debris are being transferred to the [FBI] Laboratory in Virginia for counterintelligence exploitation, as has occurred with the previous surface and subsurface debris recovered."