The United States military has recently released new information on an unidentified balloon that was spotted flying over Hawaii last week. In accordance with established protocols for monitoring American airspace, the Department of Defense and the Federal Aviation Administration detected and observed an unmanned balloon at an altitude of 36,000 feet on April 28th.

The ownership of the balloon is currently unknown, however, the Department has confirmed that there is no indication of foreign or adversarial control. According to official reports, the balloon was not seen to traverse any critical infrastructure or sensitive U.S. Government sites, and posed no discernable threat to the public or military personnel.

Although the balloon was flying at a common altitude used by civilian aviation, it did not pose a threat to any civil aviation routine operations. Following a thorough review of the situation, the Secretary of Defense agreed that no action needed to be taken against the balloon and it was allowed to continue its flight path. The balloon has since left the airspace and territorial waters of Hawaii.

Reports suggest that the balloon is currently headed towards Mexico but it has not been confirmed.

This news follows a similar incident that occurred in February of this year when a Chinese spy balloon entered U.S. airspace. Despite the best efforts of the Biden administration to prevent the balloon from transmitting information as it flew over sensitive U.S. military installations, it was reported to have gathered and transmitted data from multiple sites, sometimes passing over targets in a figure-eight pattern.

The data collected was primarily electronic signals from weapons systems and base communications. The spy balloon was eventually shot down by the U.S. military using an F-22 Raptor, and three other unidentified objects were subsequently downed over Alaska, Lake Huron, and Canada.