Object shot down over the Yukon
On 11 February 2023 a US F-22, under NORAD and on Prime Minister Trudeau's order, shot down a cylindrical object over central Yukon, near Mayo. It was the first such shoot-down over Canadian soil.
2023 CE · 63.60, -135.90 · status: official
The account
RCMP and Canadian Forces teams searched the snow-covered terrain for weeks. Canada ended the search in March 2023 without announcing any recovery.
The sceptical view
As with the Alaska and Lake Huron objects, the most likely explanation offered was small balloons; none was recovered to confirm it.
The researched reading
Very probably a hobbyist’s pico balloon that went silent over the Yukon the same day. The case is ordinary but unconfirmed, because nothing was ever found in the snow.
| Explanation | Weight | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Undetermined | 42% | The share a generic explanation had beyond what has been shown for this case: it fits many cases like this one, but has not been demonstrated for this one. |
| Something known, misidentified | 40% | The Northern Illinois Bottlecap Balloon Brigade lost contact with its pico balloon K9YO on 11 February off the Alaska–Yukon border, the day and region of the shoot-down, and a stratospheric-balloon consultant put the match at about 98 per cent. Officials called the object cylindrical and small, which fits a hobby balloon with a foil envelope and tiny tracker. |
| Secret human technology | 8% | Canada and the US had just found a Chinese surveillance balloon over North America, and a small foreign sensor balloon cannot be excluded without wreckage. |
| Genuinely anomalous | 4% | RCMP searchers combed the snow between Dawson City and Mayo until 17 February and recovered nothing, so the balloon identification remains circumstantial. |
| Perception, memory or mind | 3% | The object was first described in the alarmed days after the spy balloon; the radar filters had been opened up and anything slow and small looked suspicious. |
| A known natural phenomenon | 1% | It was physically struck and brought down; no atmospheric effect fits. |
| A poorly understood natural phenomenon | 1% | No unexplained natural process is needed. |
| A hoax or fabrication | 1% | The shoot-down was ordered by the Prime Minister and announced by both governments. |
Official position: Canada and the US said the object was most likely a small balloon; the search ended without recovery.