White House rules out aliens but still in the dark over UFOs shot down by US fighter jets

The White House has spoken out on the “take-downs” of three mystery objects after a top commander refused to rule out extraterrestrial activity.

Aliens are not behind the spate of unidentified flying objects over North America, the White House has declared, after speculation was ignited by a top Air Force commander refusing to rule out extraterrestrial activity.

But after three objects were shot down in three days by American fighter jets, US authorities still have no idea what they were, who owned them or where they came from.

On Monday (AEDT), asked if aliens were to blamefor the objects, General Glen VanHerck said: “I’ll let the intel community and the counterintelligence community figure that out. I haven’t ruled out anything.”

White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told a briefing there was no indication of aliens or extraterrestrial activity. Picture: AFP

President Joe Biden’s press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre moved to hose down that speculation on Tuesday (AEDT).

“There are no indications of aliens or extraterrestrial activity with these recent take-downs,” she told reporters.

“I wanted to make sure the American people knew that.”

National Security Council spokesman John Kirby agreed, adding: “I don’t think Americans need to worry about aliens with respect to these craft.”

The moment a US fighter jet shoots down suspected Chinese spy balloon. Picture: Angela Mosley

But Mr Kirby said the Biden administration and defence officials had no further information about the objects shot down over Alaska, Canada and Michigan over the weekend.

And with the debris falling in remote areas amid heavy winter weather, he flagged the search for answers could drag on.

The White House also moved to slap down claims from the Chinese government that the US had flown at least 10 surveillance balloons in its airspace over the past year, accusing Beijing of “scrambling to do damage control”.

“Any claim that the US government operates surveillance balloons over the PRC is false,” National Security Council spokeswoman Adrienne Watson said.

“(China) has repeatedly and wrongly claimed the surveillance balloon it sent over the US was a weather balloon and has failed to offer any credible explanation of its intrusion into our airspace.”

National Security Council spokesman John Kirby. Picture: AFP

In a lengthy briefing on Tuesday, Mr Kirby said no foreign governments had been in contact with the US about the three objects shot down in the wake of the Chinese spy balloon.

He was also unaware of whether US authorities had been in contact with private companies and research institutions operating high-altitude craft for their own purposes.

Asked whether it was strange no one had claimed responsibility for the objects, Mr Kirby said: “I can’t say whether that’s strange or not, because we’re sort of in uncharted territory.”

He said the objects had been shot down by Sidewinder missiles because they posed a threat to civilian aircraft and could have been used for surveillance of sensitive defence sites.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said there was “obviously some sort of pattern” but Mr Kirby was unable to reveal more details to explain it, except that American radars had been modified since the balloon in an effort to spot more high-altitude, slow-moving objects.

“One of the reasons we think we’re seeing more is we’re looking for more,” he said.

Mr Kirby revealed Mr Biden had ordered the creation of a new inter-agency task force to investigate how unidentified objects were detected, analysed and dealt with.

“Every element of the government will redouble their efforts to understand and mitigate these events,” he said.