FAA briefly closes airspace over Lake Michigan for ‘defense activities’

Airspace over Lake Michigan was briefly closed on Sunday due to Department of Defense (DOD) activities and has since been reopened, according to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).

“The FAA briefly closed some airspace over Lake Michigan to support Department of Defense activities,” the administration said in a statement to The Hill. “The airspace has been reopened.”

The activity above Lake Michigan comes as airspace over central Montana was closed briefly on Saturday, after North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) detected a “radar anomaly,” sending fighter jets to investigate.

The jets did not locate an object to corroborate the radar. Sen. Jon Tester (D-Mont.) said that there still might be an object above Montana, but NORAD on Sunday did not confirm whether it was monitoring the situation or whether it was actively searching for an object above the state. 

Tester’s team said he had been in “close touch with the DOD,” but did not offer details about why the senator believed an object might still be flying over the state. On Sunday he also said it could be a “false alarm.”

Two unidentified objects have been shot down over North America, one on Friday and one on Saturday, in the aftermath of the Chinese surveillance balloon that was taken down over the Atlantic Ocean after crossing the United States last week. 

One object over Alaska was shot down on Friday while another was shot down on Saturday by a U.S. fighter jet over Canadian territory after Prime Minister Justin Trudeau ordered the move.

Information about the downed objects has been sparse, with officials offering little in the way of clarity. Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) said on Sunday that U.S. officials believe that the objects were balloons, after being briefed by a Biden administration national security official, but the White House has offered few other details on the matters.