Amateur balloonist group from Illinois says small balloon last reported over Alaska ‘missing in action’

An Illinois-based membership of novice balloonists says certainly one of its small balloons is “lacking in motion” after final reporting its location over Alaska on Saturday, the identical day the US army shot down an unidentified object in the identical area.

Whereas the Northern Illinois Bottlecap Balloon Brigade (NIBBB) has not blamed the US authorities for taking out certainly one of its 32-inch-wide “Pico Balloons,” the group of hobbyists notes in a publish on its weblog that its final transmission close to a small island off the west coast of Alaska occurred after the balloon had been airborne for greater than 4 months and circled the globe seven instances.

“Pico Balloon K9YO final reported on February eleventh at 00:48 zulu close to Hagemeister Island after 123 days and 18 hours of flight,” the NIBBB weblog publish, dated February 14, states.

CNN’s makes an attempt to achieve the NIBBB have been unsuccessful.

North American Aerospace Protection Command (NORAD) deferred inquiries to the Nationwide Safety Council for identification of the objects and had no extra data, in keeping with a spokeswoman for US Northern Command and NORAD.

CNN has reached out to the NSC for remark.

The chance that this leisure balloon may very well be one of many three unidentified objects shot down by the US army was first reported on Thursday by Aviation Week.

Earlier within the day, President Joe Biden delivered his first public remarks on the subject and acknowledged that “the intelligence group’s present evaluation is that these three objects have been probably balloons tied to non-public corporations, recreation, or analysis establishments.”

Pico ballooning combines high-altitude balloons with novice or Ham radios.

“We ship a small transmitter, with GPS monitoring and antenna on a balloon full of Hydrogen, rising to 47,000 ft, and travelling with the velocity of the Jetstream,” the NIBBB web site explains.

The NIBBB says its members, starting from children to adults, are answerable for launching greater than 25 balloons for the reason that group’s inception in June 2021.

“Six ended up in timber (we discovered a repair for that). Six balloons by no means mentioned hey (we predict we have now a repair for that). We had eight balloons that traveled america. We had 9 balloons that left america. We had three balloons that just about made it around the globe. We have now two balloons flying around the globe,” the group mentioned on its web site.

It stays to be seen the place Pico Balloon K9YO will probably be discovered.