18 Months After Being Shot Down, an Image of A Mysterious UAP Intercepted Over Canada Has Been Released

A series of emails sent between Canadian military leaders discussing the release of an image of one of the mysterious balloons shot down over North America during February 2023 has been released, including not only a description of the object, but also a copy of the image in question—along with the reason as to why the unclassified image was kept under wraps.

Obtained by an anonymous researcher through an Access to Information Request made to Canada’s Department of National Defence the month after the incidents themselves, the emails document a discussion that took place amongst Canadian Armed Forces officials regarding the release of a declassified image of the object that was shot down on February 11, 2023, over Canada’s Yukon Territory, a day after a similar object was downed over northern Alaska, and the day before an octagonal object was brought down over Lake Huron.

Although these objects were assumed to be either research or private balloons that had been lost by their respective owners, the discovery of the high-altitude objects came in the wake of the high-profile intercept of a suspected Chinese spy balloon, shot down by an F-22 Raptor off of the coast of South Carolina on February 4, 2023.

Although the wreckage of the outsized Chinese balloon was recovered immediately after it was brought down, the search for the other objects was cancelled within days of their respective intercepts due to the conditions that the searches were being conducted in, with the Yukon UAP’s search area described by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) as “rugged mountain terrain with a very high level of snowpack.” The search was called off on February 17 after a heavy snowfall in the area that added to the “decreasing probability [that] the object will be found and the current belief the object is not tied to a scenario that justifies extraordinary search efforts.”

The released emails, obtained by CTVNews.ca in September 2024, offer, according to one of the communiqués sent on February 15 by Brigadier-General Eric Laforest, “the best description that we have” of the Yukon object, referred to as ‘UAP23’ in the emails, meaning it was the 23rd unidentified anomalous phenomenon tracked over North America in 2023.

“Visual – a cylindrical object,” the email elaborates; “Top quarter is metallic, remainder white. 20-foot wire hanging below with a package of some sort suspended from it,” a description that is in-line with a separate Pentagon memo obtained by CNN that described the object as being a cylindrical “small, metallic balloon with a tethered payload below it.”

Accompanying the email was an image, of which appears to be a black and white photocopy of a printout of the email, that depicts a pale C-shaped object against a dark background, consistent with the description of the two-colored object from the email’s text. The quality of the image is poor, offering little detail; however, the DND appears to have more images of UAP23, according to an email sent by Major General JPL Prevost: “I CAD [1 Canadian Air Division] is looking at more footage [REDACTED] and will release ASAP.”

Although the image was initially cleared for public distribution within days of the incident, the decision to release the picture was reversed after Chief of Staff organization in Public Affairs chief Taylor Paxton raised concerns that doing so “may create more questions/confusion, regardless of the text that will accompany the post.”

Additionally, the emails indicated that there were concerns over running afoul of Canadian Forces Intelligence Command’s (CFINTCOM) protocols, “due to the domestic collection policies and collection means” that governed how the image was obtained.

Although there is no indication that these objects were anything other than the wayward balloons that both Canadian and U.S. officials describe them as, there is the question of why there are so few details being released regarding these incidents; for instance, the Access to Information Request into UAP 23 took 18 months to be addressed by the DND, despite all indications that it was no more than an ordinary balloon.

“It comes down to these episodes illustrating a potential vulnerability in the U.S./Canada defensive system,” explains the University of Colorado’s director of the Center for National Security Initiatives, Iain Boyd. “Certainly the failure to provide more information has fed conspiracy theories, but the military will likely accept that outcome over disclosing information that may help an adversary identify defensive weaknesses.”