Canada's air force took video of object shot down over Yukon, updated image released

The latest image of the unidentified object shot down over Canada's Yukon territory in February 2023, right, is barely distinguishable from the version previously published by CTVNews.ca, left. (Department of National Defence via access to information request)

Canada's Department of National Defence has released more details and an updated image of the unidentified object shot down over the Yukon in February 2023.

According to a defence spokesperson, the image was taken from a Royal Canadian Air Force CP-140 Aurora long-range patrol aircraft before the object was downed by a U.S. F-22 fighter jet.

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"Regarding the resolution of the image, it was captured as a cropped screen shot of a video feed, using a monochrome system, thus the original image is of low quality and no colour version exists," the spokesperson said.

Their response comes nearly two-and-a-half months after CTVNews.ca first published the image, which was acquired through an access to information request. Through a new request, CTVNews.ca also obtained the unclassified image in its "original format" – a digital PowerPoint file.

The blurry grey-scale version is only slightly different from the grainy scanned image that was previously published. Canada's military says this is the best available copy. The video it was taken from has not been released.

The 'original' image of the unidentified object shot down over Canada's Yukon territory in February 2023. (Department of National Defence via access to information request)

What was shot down in 2023?

The Yukon object was shot down on Feb. 11, 2023, shortly after it entered Canadian airspace via Alaska. It was one of three unidentified objects blasted out of the sky that month following the high-profile Feb. 4, 2023, downing of an apparent Chinese surveillance balloon.

Heavily redacted documents show the Yukon image was approved for public distribution within days of the headline-grabbing incident, but then held back after a public affairs official expressed concerns that releasing it "may create more questions/confusion." At the time, officials described it as a "suspected balloon."

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"The best description that we have is: Visual - a cylindrical object," a declassified email from a Canadian brigadier-general states. "Top quarter is metallic, remainder white. 20 foot wire hanging below with a package of some sort suspended from it."

Additional reports and military documents suggest the Yukon object could have been a mylar balloon launched by hobbyists in northern Illinois. A recent CTVNews.ca investigation also revealed that debris was recovered in connection with the object shot down over Lake Huron, suggesting it could have been a weather balloon. Such details were never made public.

A February 2023 report from the Royal Canadian Air Force suggests the Yukon object could have been a hobbyist balloon (Department of National Defence via access to information request).

Iain Boyd is an aerospace engineering professor and director of the Center for National Security Initiatives at the University of Colorado Boulder.

"To have expended significant military time and resources to shoot down benign objects does not look good, even though there may have been many factors we are still unaware of," Boyd previously told CTVNews.ca. "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."

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In declassified documents, the Yukon object is repeatedly referred to as "UAP 23." "UAP" typically stands for "unidentified aerial phenomena," which has largely replaced the terms "UFO" and "unidentified flying object" in official circles. According to a "secret" memo provided to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, the Yukon object was the 23rd UAP tracked over North America in the first few weeks of 2023.

After decades of dismissal and denial by U.S. authorities, the Pentagon, NASA and American lawmakers have gone public about their recent efforts to investigate UAP. In Canada, the Office of the Chief Science Advisor's Sky Canada Project plans to release its own UAP report by the end of 2024, which is the first known official Canadian UFO study in nearly 30 years.

Do you have an interesting document or observation to share? Email CTVNews.ca Journalist Daniel Otis at [e-mail].