The search for the debris of an object shot down by NORAD Sunday over Lake Huron has been suspended.
Coast Guard helicopters and a Coast Guard ship had been searching earlier this week along the Lake Huron shoreline between Kincardine and Northern Bruce Peninsula.
There have been strong wind gusts in the region Wednesday and Thursday.
A release from the RCMP issued Thursday says, “After conducting an extensive search in the Lake Huron area with the assistance of the Canadian Coast Guard and other domestic and international partners, a decision was reached to suspend the search due to several factors including deteriorating weather and the low probability of recovery.”
On Tuesday, Minister of Fisheries, Oceans and the Canadian Coast Guard Joyce Murray said the Canadian Coast Guard Ship Griffon had been taking part in the search, along with the two Coast Guard helicopters, and the search would be joined by the Coast Guard Ship Samuel Risley.
On Thursday, an online marine vessel tracker showed both the Griffon and Samuel Risley docked in Sarnia.
The Canadian Armed Forces, RCMP, Coast Guard, NORAD and American partners had been working to recover the object. It was one of four objects shot down this month, after the first, which was a large balloon suspected of being used by the Chinese government as a tool for spying was shot down off the United States’ East Coast. The Chinese government has said it was a weather balloon that drifted off course.
According to the RCMP, as of Thursday afternoon, the search for a downed object in the Yukon was continuing.
