By Tim Binnall
An odd orb spotted hovering in the sky by several witnesses in Hawaii was so strange that a pair of fighter jets were scrambled to check out the puzzling object. According to a local media report, the weird incident occurred last Monday afternoon on the island of Kauai when several individuals noticed something seemingly out of the ordinary over their heads. Abe Kowitz, who photographed the curious object, observed that it resembled a "big bright star," which was puzzling because "we shouldn’t be seeing stars this time of day." The bewildered witness was not the only one scratching his head over what he was seeing as others soon took to social media to wonder about the UFO and they weren't the only ones asking questions.
Much to the amazement of those watching the UFO, a pair of F-22 fighter jets soon appeared in the sky en route to the aerial interloper. As one might imagine, this caused all manner of speculation surrounding what, exactly, had prompted such a response. However, fears that the event was a showdown between the military and some invading force, alien or otherwise, were soon put to rest as Major General Kenneth Hara offered an official explanation for the somewhat worrisome incident. "In regards to aerial activity over Kauai," he wrote on Twitter, "Indo-Pacific Command detected a high-altitude object floating in air in the vicinity of the Hawaiian Islands."
"In accordance with homeland defense procedures, Pacific Air Forces launched tactical aircraft to intercept and identify the object," Hara continued, indicating that the pilots were ultimately able to get a visual confirmation that the UFO was, in fact, "an unmanned balloon without observable identification markings." While the outcome of the incident may disappoint those hoping that the odd orb was alien in nature, one can take some comfort in the military's remarkably fast response to the unexplained 'visitor,' which would seem to suggest that we're ready should the next unidentified object wind up being a hostile extraterrestrial force.