Boatnerd Discussion Forum

Mackinaw returned back to Cheboygan this morning.

[quote=guest post_id=252126 time=1676503008]
[quote=clarkjol post_id=252124 time=1676495201]
The agreement was made that the US would shoot down the balloon and the Canadians would retrieve the remains. It's just that simple. This balloon was nowhere as big as the 1st balloon shot down in the Atlantic. Remains might be hard to locate.
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According to the DOD, NORAD and NSC spokesman Kirby it was not a balloon but an octagonal "object" with no means of propulsion. The lack of transparency of how any airborne object can be allowed to transit US airspace this far into the heartland of America is appalling. The lack of any urgency to retrieve the "object" using all assets both US and CA is even more so.
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The radar cross section of these things is small. It is hard to detect to begin with. And to be fair, it is the middle of February and assets to search deep water in the lake is extremely limited. It won't be until spring that more assets can be brought into the region to search for this very small object IF they choose to do so. If it's just a weather balloon, then this will be an appalling waste of resources.

[quote=clarkjol post_id=252124 time=1676495201]
The agreement was made that the US would shoot down the balloon and the Canadians would retrieve the remains. It's just that simple. This balloon was nowhere as big as the 1st balloon shot down in the Atlantic. Remains might be hard to locate.
[/quote]

According to the DOD, NORAD and NSC spokesman Kirby it was not a balloon but an octagonal "object" with no means of propulsion. The lack of transparency of how any airborne object can be allowed to transit US airspace this far into the heartland of America is appalling. The lack of any urgency to retrieve the "object" using all assets both US and CA is even more so.

The agreement was made that the US would shoot down the balloon and the Canadians would retrieve the remains. It's just that simple. This balloon was nowhere as big as the 1st balloon shot down in the Atlantic. Remains might be hard to locate.

The Marine Traffic shows the Griffin once again, along with the search pattern she's been doing near the Bruce Penninsula.

The Mackinaw is out on L Huron somewhere with AIS off or hidden. She left Cheboygan at around midnight on Super Bowl Sunday and is still not back.

I find it more than a bit interesting that 24 hrs after the unidentified object was shot down over Lake Huron that the 2 USCG cutters on Lake Huron, Hollyhock and Mackinaw are at their respective moorings and the only vessel on the open lake is CCG Griffon? One would think that even if it went down in Canadian waters that there would be more of a response to locate and retrieval

As most know by now, and unindentified object was brought down over Lake Huron on Sunday.

Is the CCG Griffon participating in the search for debris of the object? Are USCG vessels participating in rhe search?