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Hobby Club's Missing Balloon Feared Shot Down By USAF:

Hobby Club's Missing Balloon Feared Shot Down By USAF:

From : aviationweek.com on 2023-02-17

A small, globe-trotting balloon declared "missing in action" by an Illinois-based hobbyist club on Feb. 15 has emerged as a candidate to explain one of the three mystery objects shot down by four heat-seeking missiles launched by U.S. Air Force fighters since Feb. 10. The club -- the Northern Illinois Bottlecap Balloon Brigade (NIBBB) -- is not pointing fingers yet. But the circumstantial evidence is at least intriguing. The club's silver-coated, party-style, "pico balloon" reported its last position on Feb. 10 at 38,910 ft. off the west coast of Alaska, and a popular forecasting tool -- the HYSPLIT model provided by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) -- projected the cylindrically shaped object would be floating high over the central part of the Yukon Territory on Feb. 11. That is the same day a Lockheed Martin F-22 shot down an unidentified object of a similar description and altitude in the same general area. There are suspicions among other prominent members of the small, pico-ballooning enthusiasts' community, which combines ham radio and high-altitude ballooning into a single, relatively affordable hobby.

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