Not sure what you mean. The first one had already passed Alaska and a good part of Canada before it was picked up by the news. Meaning it been over land for a good amount of time.

>Meaning it been over land for a good amount of time.

That's what i mean. Why not shoot it down when it enters US-Waters...BEFORE it's over US-Land, is that so hard to understand?

(a) they wanted to shoot it down in a location in which it would be easily recoverable, and (b) they didn’t want to risk damaging persons or property.

>they didn’t want to risk damaging persons or property.

In Alaska...please shut up.

>they wanted to shoot it down in a location in which it would be easily recoverable

Like yesterday the car sized ufo in alaska?

For the same reason we'll let a suspected spy in sometimes or not expell them: by watching we can learn a lot about what they care about.

It's a balloon with instruments, not a human.

You are comparing two completely different games and you know it.

Something like this happened already, you sound like an idiot:

https://www.history.com/news/japans-killer-wwii-balloons