Posted on 02/06/2023 7:46:54 AM PST by jerod
The Sask. weather balloon survived more than 1,000 rounds of ammunition back in 1998
China isn't the only country to face questions about a curious balloon. Back in 1998, a 25-storey high runaway weather balloon proved to be an international headache for Canada.
The helium-filled balloon — about five football fields long when deflated— was launched out of Vanscoy, Sask. on Aug. 24 with an innocent-enough task: measure ozone levels.
But according to reports at the time, the instruments on the balloon failed to detach at the end of the test.
The backup system also failed — sending the balloon aloft. Once it hit the sky's jet streams it was able to pick up speeds of 100 km/h, according to a CBC report.
Canadian CF-18 fighter jet pilots caught up with the balloon off the coast of Newfoundland and took aim, firing more than 1,000 rounds of ammunition at it.
But the balloon survived the assault, soldiering on over the North Atlantic.
A spokesperson for the air force told the Associated Press that the fighter jets were equipped with air-to-air missiles but the pilots restrained from using the heavier firepower.
"Citizens would not have appreciated having a missile blowing over their heads,″ said Maj. Roland Lavoie.
"Also, it might be overkill, spending a couple of hundred thousand dollars on a missile to shoot down a balloon that's drifting away.″
Undeterred, the balloon meandered into British airspace, forcing air traffic controllers to divert transatlantic flights and catching the attention of the British press.
"The top guns who couldn't pop a balloon," read one newspaper headline at the time, taking aim at the Canadian pilots.
But the snark was premature.
"It's a bit of a case of the pot calling kettle black," shot back Canadian Maj. Bernard Degagne on television. "In that the [Royal Air Force] also tried to bring the balloon down and were also unsuccessful."
Even the muscle of the U.S. Air Force couldn't bring the balloon to Earth, according to a BBC report.
The rogue balloon was spotted in Norwegian and Russian airspace before eventually crashing in Finland, more than a week after its chaotic journey began....
Heck, if they had more of those, the Germans might have won the war.
The left-wing MsM is now trying to cover for President Puddin-Head.
And somehow we took it out quickly once we decided to do it.
The media is just grasping at balloons trying to run cover for their POTARD, aren’t they.
They use the abbreviation of Sask. as if everyone knows what it stands for. I can figure it out but lots of people are scratching their heads over it. The writer doesn’t want to be embarrassed by the fact that she doesn’t know how to spell Saskatchewan.
Once you’ve seen one spy balloon, you’ve seen ‘em all, right?
A great story! Thanks for sharing! 😀
There is a myth out there, or not, that we shot at the China balloon over Billings and failed to “pop” it.
Now we get all these stories about how hard it is to shoot down balloons. I’m amazed that they can brazenly take people in on this and make excuses for Biden’s ALLOWING China to spy.
I think the lesson is that Canada should have used a missile to shoot it down once it was over the Atlantic. Like our boys did.
I think the lesson is that if you're feeling patriotic because Biden ALLOWED this to be shot down AFTER it had completed its mission then you've been compromised.
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