Recently declassified Royal Canadian Air Force documents show that two Air Canada flights had spotted a suspected Chinese spy balloon in January 2023 before news broke that it had breached North American airspace and then was shot down days later.
The two heavily redacted
“secret
” documents associated with the sightings were obtained by independent private investigator
Ryan Stacey through access-to-information requests and provided to
CTV News.
One was a daily log from Jan. 31, 2023, and the other a
report of the sighting produced according to procedures known as Communications Instructions for Reporting Vital Intelligence Sightings (CIRVIS).
The documents referred to the suspected Chinese surveillance balloon as a “TOI,” or “track of interest,” and later “Object Charlie.” Air Canada flights from both Vancouver to Montreal and Vancouver to Winnipeg reported their sightings of the unidentified flying object about half an hour apart while flying over southeastern British Columbia.
“[Redacted] reported object hanging off bottom of object, looks as briefed,” said the log from the
22 Wing Canadian Forces base in North Bay, Ontario, also known as the Canadian Air Defence Sector (CADS).
“[Redacted] reports 4-6 dishes on the structure,” the log added.
The daily log said CADS technicians searched radar data for other unknown objects but only found the one balloon.
After the balloon was spotted again, by the pilot of the second Air Canada flight, CADS technicians disseminated the CIRVIS “vital intelligence” report.
“Pilot reported a balloon with a structure beneath it 4000 [feet] above its altitude,” stated the CIRVIS report. “This [pilot report] correlates to the Balloon TOI being tracked by [redacted]. ... No intercept or ID actions taken.”
CADS is responsible for monitoring radar data and identifying all air traffic approaching Canada. It forwards any information vital to North American security to the North American Aerospace Defence Command (
NORAD), the binational military command jointly operated by Canada and the United States to provide aerospace and air defence for both countries.
Response
The Chinese spy balloon was
first detected entering Alaskan airspace on Jan. 28, 2023. It then crossed into Canadian airspace on Jan. 30 and travelled south before re-entering U.S. airspace on Jan. 31. The U.S. military
shot it down into the Atlantic Ocean on Feb. 4, 2023.
China denied the balloon’s involvement in surveillance activities, saying that it was an “airship” of a “civilian nature,” used for scientific research such as meteorology, and that it had accidentally blown off course due to an “overpowering force that could not be resisted.” The Pentagon, however,
rejected this explanation.
Experts analyzing the balloon’s path highlighted its alignment with a
belt of key U.S. Air Force bases housing much of American military capabilities to conduct reconnaissance and nuclear strike forces on alert. This includes the Malmstrom Air Force Base (AFB) in Montana, the Francis E. Warren AFB in Wyoming, and the Minot AFB in North Dakota, the sites of the three intercontinental ballistic missile wings of the U.S. Air Force.
The incident was not isolated. On Feb. 10, 2023, the U.S. Air Force disclosed that it had shot down a
second “high-altitude object” off the northern coast of Alaska. A
third object was identified flying over Canadian airspace on Feb. 11 and was shot down over Yukon.
Chinese spy balloons have also been reported violating the airspace of various other countries and regions, including
Taiwan,
Japan, and
Colombia.
