大约 25 年前，当一个气象气球失控时，战斗机向它发射了 1,000 发子弹，但无法将其击落

大约 25 年前，事实证明，一个大型失控的气象气球对于试图将其击落的两架战斗机来说是相当具有挑战性的，即使向它发射了 1,000 多发子弹，它仍能留在空中。

据美联社当时报道，研究气球正在测量加拿大上空的臭氧水平。 它于 1998 年 8 月开始肆虐，飞越加拿大，飞越大西洋，穿过英国领空，然后进入冰岛领空，然后向北漂流。

两架加拿大皇家空军 CF-18 战斗机在纽芬兰上空发现了这个气球，并向它发射了 1,000 多发子弹。 美联社报道说，喷气式飞机是美国 F/A-18 大黄蜂的加拿大变体，它撞上了气球，但它并没有爆裂或爆炸并坠落到地球上，而是慢慢开始泄漏氦气。 大气球还在空中。

加拿大军方发言人史蒂夫威尔斯中尉告诉 BBC，很难瞄准气球，尽管它大约有 25 层楼那么大，未能将其取出并不令人尴尬。

“像这样的东西，当 CF-18 飞得非常非常快时它会静止在空中，很难射击它，”威尔斯说。

据报道，CF-18 配备了空对空导弹，但加拿大少校 Roland Lavoie 告诉美联社，飞行员没有使用它们。

他说：“市民不会喜欢导弹从他们头上飞过。”“此外，花费数十万美元购买导弹来击落正在飘走的气球可能有点过分了。”

据英国广播公司报道，该气球也在与英国和美国飞机的相遇中幸存下来。

据英国广播公司报道，事发时，300 英尺高的氦气球促使空中交通管制员改道并推迟跨大西洋航班。 据《爱尔兰时报》报道，如果放气，气球将覆盖大约五个足球场的面积。

美国目前有一个中国气球，五角大楼官员称这是一个情报收集间谍气球，但中国认为这是在其领空内的一项研究资产，并且一直存在关于将其击落的问题。

五角大楼新闻秘书帕特莱德准将周四表示，气球的运行高度高于商业空中交通，“不会对地面人员构成军事或人身威胁”。 尽管如此，美国还是紧急出动了 F-22 猛禽战斗机和其他飞机作为回应。

莱德说，目前没有击落气球的计划。 即使采取了保护措施，“我们的军事指挥官判断我们没有将风险降低到足够低，所以我们没有开枪，”他说。

莱德还表示，国防部高级官员多次建议“不要采取动能行动，因为可能的碎片场会给地面人员的安全和保障带来风险”。

“我们想，你知道，注意不要有人受伤或财产没有被毁坏，”他说，并详细说明气球大到足以造成碎片场的破坏。 专家还表示，实际击落它可能比看起来更复杂。

When a weather balloon went rogue almost 25 years ago, fighter jets fired 1,000 rounds at it and couldn't bring it down

Almost 25 years ago, a large runaway weather balloon proved to be quite challenge a for a pair of fighter jets trying to shoot it down, staying in the air even after more than 1,000 rounds were fired at it.

The research balloon was measuring ozone levels above Canada, the Associated Press reported at the time. It went rogue in August 1998, passing across Canada, over the Atlantic Ocean, and through British airspace before entering Iceland's airspace and then drifting northward. 

Two Royal Canadian Air Force CF-18 fighter aircraft spotted the balloon over Newfoundland and fired more than 1,000 rounds at it. The AP reported that the jets, Canadian variants of the American F/A-18 Hornet, hit the balloon, but rather than popping or exploding and crashing to the earth, it slowly began leaking helium. The big balloon was still in the air.

A Canadian military spokesperson, a lieutenant named Steve Wills, told BBC that it was difficult to target the balloon, even though it was about the size of a 25-story building, and that the failure to take it out wasn't embarrassing.

"With something like this, which is stationary in the air when the CF-18s are flying very, very fast, it is difficult to shoot it," Wills said.

The CF-18s were reportedly equipped with air-to-air missiles, but Canadian Major Roland Lavoie told AP the pilots refrained from using them. 

"Citizens would not have appreciated having a missile blowing over their heads,″ he said. "Also, it might be overkill spending a couple of hundred thousand dollars on a missile to shoot down a balloon that's drifting away."

The balloon, BBC reported, also survived encounters with British and American aircraft.

According to BBC reports from the time of the incident, the 300-ft helium balloon prompted air traffic controllers to divert and delay transatlantic flights. If deflated, the balloon would cover an area of about five football fields, The Irish Times reported.

The US currently has a Chinese balloon, which Pentagon officials say is an intelligence-gathering spy balloon but China argues is a research asset, in its airspace, and there have been questions about shooting it down.

Brigadier Gen. Pat Ryder, the Pentagon press secretary, said Thursday that the balloon is operating at a higher altitude than commercial air traffic and "does not present a military or physical threat to people on the ground." Nonetheless, the US scrambled F-22 Raptors and other aircraft in response. 

Ryder said there were no current plans to shoot down the balloon. Even with protective measures, "it was the judgment of our military commanders that we didn't drive the risk down low enough, so we didn't take the shot," he said. 

Ryder also said there were multiple recommendations from senior Department of Defense officials "not to take kinetic action due to the risk to safety and security of people on the ground from the possible debris field."

"We wanted to, you know, take care that somebody didn't get hurt or property wasn't destroyed," he said, detailing that the balloon is large enough to cause damage from a debris field. Experts have also said that actually shooting it down may be more complicated than it seems.