Colorado's Jason Crow on UFOs shot down by U.S.: 'We're not being invaded by aliens ... come out of your bunkers'

Feb. 14—Amid a flurry of questions about a Chinese spy balloon and three other floating objects shot down over North America in recent days — former Army Ranger and U.S. Rep. Jason Crow urged calm with some good humor Monday.

"We're not being invaded by aliens so everyone can calm down and come out of your bunkers," tweeted Crow, D-Aurora.

Speculation about aliens online was fueled in part by comments by Gen. Glen VanHerck head of Northern Command and North American Aerospace Defense Command, who didn't rule out extraterrestrials Sunday as an explanation of the objects shot down three days in a row. NORAD is based in Colorado Springs.

"I'll let the intel community and the counterintelligence community figure that out. I haven't ruled out anything," Reuters quoted VanHerck as saying.

The Air Force shot down the floating objects — which didn't have propulsion and didn't appear to be sending communication signals — because they could have posed a threat to commercial aircraft at their altitude, said John Kirby, National Security Council spokesman on Monday. He also noted many balloons are sent up to collect information at similar altitudes "for purposes that are not nefarious," such as research.

In the same briefing, Kirby noted the president has asked the intelligence community "to take a broad look at the phenomenon of unidentified aerial objects."

President Joe Biden is committed to understanding them in partnership with academic institutions and the private sector, Kirby said.

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"Unidentified aerial phenomena have been reported for many years, without explanation or deep examination by the government," Kirby said. "President Biden has changed all that. We are finally trying to understand them better."

In the meantime, Crow urged patience, reiterating some of the same themes Kirby's touched on, notably that recovering the wreckage and analyzing it will take time.

It could be difficult to find the objects in remote areas of Alaska and Canada, Kirby said. One of the objects went down over Lake Huron and could be in deep water.

Crow said on Twitter he expects Congress would receive information when it is available.

"Briefing prematurely is ALWAYS a bad idea," he said.

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