This is the first image of a UFO shot down by American fighter jets during a chase near Alaska last year.
The photo shows a seemingly glowing horse shoe-shaped object with ill-defined edges over the Yukon territory in northwest Canada on February 11, 2023.
It was shot down by a US Air Force F-22 stealth fighter on a joint mission with the Canadian Armed Forces following the now infamous Chinese spy balloon drama that made international news that month.
Redacted documents show that this UFO image was designated as 'unclassified' within just days of the now 19-month-old incident, yet Canada's defense department did not release it to the public until now.
A possible reason, as one public affairs official with Canada's Department of National Defence (DND) warned colleagues, was internal fears that releasing this unclassified UFO image 'may create more questions/confusion.'
This official, a director of communications named Taylor Paxton, advised military colleagues that this confusion would be inevitable 'given the current public environment and statements related to the object being benign.'
Paxton suggested that any move by the Royal Canadian Air Force to publish the photo on social media would likely only raise more inquiries from the general public and the press 'regardless of the text that will accompany the post.'
The craft was one of three shot down over Alaska, Yukon and Lake Huron between February 10 and 12, 2023.
The three objects were reportedly much smaller than the Chinese spy balloon that was grounded off the coast of South Carolina days earlier.
The new emails — obtained along with the eerie new UFO photo by CTVNews.ca reporter Daniel Otis via an open records law request — also included efforts by members of Canada's armed forces to better understand the craft that had been shot down themselves.
One email from Canadian Brigadier-General Eric Laforest described the UFO as a 'cylindrical object.'
'Top quarter is metallic, remainder white. 20-foot wire hanging below with a package of some sort suspended,' Brig. Gen. Laforest wrote. 'Best description that we have.'
Dark portions visible along the top center of the UFO in this newly released image may depict either that upper metallic region or the remains of the alleged 'package.'
But this release only adds more mystery to the wave of espionage-tinted UFO activity that surrounded the confirmed downing of an authentic Chinese-government spy balloon earlier that month off the coast of South Carolina's Myrtle Beach.
Iain Boyd, a professor of aerospace engineering and director of the Center for National Security Initiatives at the University of Colorado, described the Canadian government's reticence to release the image as an issue of national security — despite the image's 'unclassified' designation.
'It comes down to these episodes illustrating a potential vulnerability in the U.S./Canada defensive system,' Boyd opined.
'Certainly the failure to provide more information has fed conspiracy theories,' as he told CTVNews.ca, 'but the military will likely accept that outcome over disclosing information that may help an adversary identify defensive weaknesses.'
According to the report for CTV News, the network's journalists plan to petition the Canadian military for a higher resolution version of this UFO image.
