The Air Force scrambled two F-16 fighter jets to monitor the runaway balloon after it shot up to about 4,600 metres in altitude, before returning to Earth, where it dragged its 2-kilometre-long tethering cable across fields and farmlands, striking power cables and causing blackouts.
The story gained brief international attention, with observers poking fun at the Pentagon for letting a very high-tech balloon break free and do some very low-tech damage.
Workers begin the inflation of a Defence Elevated Netted Sensor System (JLENS) aerostat blimp at Aberdeen Proving Ground, Maryland in 2014. Photo: US Army
I was working in the Pentagon as a defence reporter at the time and remember the quirky story as providing a moment of levity – sorry – when our attention was otherwise mainly focused on ISIS in Iraq and Syria.
The tale of the rogue blimp faded quickly from the headlines after the military recaptured it without too much damage being done.
I thought the same thing would happen after the Pentagon shot down what it said was a Chinese spy balloon that had been snooping over the American heartland and peering into US military bases.
Beijing, which claims the balloon was a weather station, has denied any surveillance activity and went on to accuse the US of sending its own “high-altitude balloons” over China.
Surely the latest balloon story would drop from the headlines, I assumed, chalked up as an intriguing episode between the world’s two largest economies.
But then things got weird.
The shoot-down of the Chinese balloon off South Carolina on February 4 turned out to be only the start of a bizarre story.
Within days, the Pentagon scrambled fighter jets on three other occasions to intercept what it referred to as “objects” that were spotted in the skies over North America – two in the US and one in Canada.
Each time, the vessel was shot down. And each time, the Pentagon was unable to describe what the craft had been, though defence officials said they were "cylindrical" or "octagonal", but not balloons.
Then on Sunday, Air Force Gen Glen VanHerck, head of North American Aerospace Defence Command (Norad) and Northern Command, was asked if the objects were extraterrestrial in origin.
Instead of laughing off the question, he said he would “let the intel community and the counter-intelligence community figure that out”.
“I haven't ruled out anything at this point," Gen VanHerck said, noting that the craft could not be categorised as balloons.
On Monday, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre started her daily briefing with this memorable line: “There is no indication of aliens or extraterrestrial activity with these recent takedowns.”
Her statement drew derisive chuckles from journalists, but at the end of the briefing, White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby reiterated the message, telling America not to freak out.
"I don’t think the American people need to worry about aliens with respect to these craft. Period,” Mr Kirby said.
But he was unable to say how the objects remained airborne, noting they had no obvious propulsion or manoeuvring systems.
Mr Kirby said the fighters that intercepted the unidentified objects whizzed by at hundreds of kilometres per hour, passing, "in terms of relative motion, a stationary object that was not very big". The Pentagon had previously described one of the objects as about the size of a small car.
President Joe Biden started receiving intelligence briefings on the issue in June 2021, Mr Kirby said, the same year that a government report documented more than 140 cases of unidentified aerial phenomena, or UAPs, that US military pilots had observed since 2004.
And Mr Biden on Monday directed an interagency team to study the "broader policy implications" of UFOs.
The Pentagon says it won't know more for sure until it can recover debris from the craft, scattered across frozen and remote terrain in North America. It's a process that could take days or weeks as recovery crews grapple with frigid winter conditions.
Many Americans are already deeply suspicious of the US government and are quick to see conspiracies around every corner.
I suspect we will eventually be offered a rather mundane explanation, but until the US provides answers, speculation will only grow as to what these vessels were.
US Navy recovers Chinese balloon – in pictures
US sailors assigned to Assault Craft Unit 4 prepare material recovered in the Atlantic Ocean. AP
FBI special agents assigned to the evidence response team process material recovered from the high-altitude balloon recovered off the coast of South Carolina. AP
US officials say the military has finished recovering the remnants of the large balloon and analysis of the debris so far reinforces conclusions that it was a Chinese spy balloon. AP
US Navy frogmen recover debris from the Atlantic Ocean. Reuters
A US fighter jet approaches the large balloon off the coast of South Carolina. AP
US sailors recover a Chinese surveillance balloon that was shot down at the weekend off the coast of Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. US Navy / Reuters
The balloon landed and was recovered in US water. US Navy / EPA
Under orders from US President Joe Biden and with the full support of the Canadian government, American fighter jets shot down the balloon in US airspace. US Navy / EPA
A US Coast Guard helicopter flies over balloon debris during recovery work. US Navy / EPA
US sailors look for more debris. US Navy / EPA
The Department of Defence said the balloon was able to manoeuvre itself to a degree. US Navy / EPA
The Chinese government has insisted that it was a weather research balloon. US Navy / EPA
TO A LAND UNKNOWN
Director: Mahdi Fleifel
Starring: Mahmoud Bakri, Aram Sabbah, Mohammad Alsurafa
Syria v Australia
2018 World Cup qualifying: Asia fourth round play-off first leg
Venue: Hang Jebat Stadium, Malayisa
Kick-off: Thursday, 4.30pm (UAE)
Watch: beIN Sports HD
* Second leg in Australia on October 10
Getting there Flydubai flies direct from Dubai to Tbilisi from Dh1,025 return including taxes
PROFILE OF HALAN
Started: November 2017
Founders: Mounir Nakhla, Ahmed Mohsen and Mohamed Aboulnaga
Based: Cairo, Egypt
Sector: transport and logistics
Size: 150 employees
Investment: approximately $8 million
Investors include: Singapore’s Battery Road Digital Holdings, Egypt’s Algebra Ventures, Uber co-founder and former CTO Oscar Salazar
TERMINAL HIGH ALTITUDE AREA DEFENCE (THAAD)
What is THAAD?
It is considered to be the US's most superior missile defence system.
Production:
It was created in 2008.
Speed:
THAAD missiles can travel at over Mach 8, so fast that it is hypersonic.
Abilities:
THAAD is designed to take out ballistic missiles as they are on their downward trajectory towards their target, otherwise known as the "terminal phase".
Purpose:
To protect high-value strategic sites, such as airfields or population centres.
Range:
THAAD can target projectiles inside and outside the Earth's atmosphere, at an altitude of 150 kilometres above the Earth's surface.
Creators:
Lockheed Martin was originally granted the contract to develop the system in 1992. Defence company Raytheon sub-contracts to develop other major parts of the system, such as ground-based radar.
UAE and THAAD:
In 2011, the UAE became the first country outside of the US to buy two THAAD missile defence systems. It then stationed them in 2016, becoming the first Gulf country to do so.
Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
Graphene is a single layer of carbon atoms arranged like honeycomb.
It was discovered in 2004, when Russian-born Manchester scientists Andrei Geim and Kostya Novoselov were "playing about" with sticky tape and graphite - the material used as "lead" in pencils.
Placing the tape on the graphite and peeling it, they managed to rip off thin flakes of carbon. In the beginning they got flakes consisting of many layers of graphene. But as they repeated the process many times, the flakes got thinner.
By separating the graphite fragments repeatedly, they managed to create flakes that were just one atom thick. Their experiment had led to graphene being isolated for the very first time.
At the time, many believed it was impossible for such thin crystalline materials to be stable. But examined under a microscope, the material remained stable, and when tested was found to have incredible properties.
It is many times times stronger than steel, yet incredibly lightweight and flexible. It is electrically and thermally conductive but also transparent. The world's first 2D material, it is one million times thinner than the diameter of a single human hair.
But the 'sticky tape' method would not work on an industrial scale. Since then, scientists have been working on manufacturing graphene, to make use of its incredible properties.
In 2010, Geim and Novoselov were awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics. Their discovery meant physicists could study a new class of two-dimensional materials with unique properties.
Starring: Jeremy Allen White, Odessa Young, Jeremy Strong
Rating: 4/5
88 Video's most popular rentals
Avengers 3: Infinity War:an American superhero film released in 2018 and based on the Marvel Comics story.
Sholay: a 1975 Indian action-adventure film. It follows the adventures of two criminals hired by police to catch a vagabond. The film was panned on release but is now considered a classic.
Lucifer: is a 2019 Malayalam-language action film. It dives into the gritty world of Kerala’s politics and has become one of the highest-grossing Malayalam films of all time.
MATCH INFO
Serie A
Juventus v Fiorentina, Saturday, 8pm (UAE)
Match is on BeIN Sports
Our legal consultants
Name: Hassan Mohsen Elhais
Position: legal consultant with Al Rowaad Advocates and Legal Consultants.
Stars: Vahid Mobasseri, Mariam Afshari, Ebrahim Azizi, Hadis Pakbaten, Majid Panahi, Mohamad Ali Elyasmehr
Rating: 4/5
Safety 'top priority' for rival hyperloop company
The chief operating officer of Hyperloop Transportation Technologies, Andres de Leon, said his company's hyperloop technology is “ready” and safe.
He said the company prioritised safety throughout its development and, last year, Munich Re, one of the world's largest reinsurance companies, announced it was ready to insure their technology.
“Our levitation, propulsion, and vacuum technology have all been developed [...] over several decades and have been deployed and tested at full scale,” he said in a statement to The National.
“Only once the system has been certified and approved will it move people,” he said.
HyperloopTT has begun designing and engineering processes for its Abu Dhabi projects and hopes to break ground soon.
With no delivery date yet announced, Mr de Leon said timelines had to be considered carefully, as government approval, permits, and regulations could create necessary delays.
The Year Earth Changed
Directed by:Tom Beard
Narrated by: Sir David Attenborough
Stars: 4
Things Heard & Seen
Directed by: Shari Springer Berman, Robert Pulcini
