February 16, 2026 at 10:59 PM
F-16s Find Balloons, Not UFOs, After Sunday Scramble: NORAD
Alert F-16s out of California scrambled to hunt down mysterious targets over Nevada and California twice on Sunday. The post F-16s Find Balloons, Not UFOs, After Sunday Scramble: NORAD appeared first on The War Zone .
A pair of F-16s sitting alert at March Air Reserve Base in Riverside, California, were scrambled early Sunday morning after unidentified flying objects were reported over Nevada and, later, California. One of the objects proved puzzling enough to controllers at Oakland Center, the FAA’s regional air traffic hub, that it reached out to aircraft flying over the northern California area for visual confirmation about what was being observed. Eventually, it was determined that the objects were weather balloons, officials from the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) told The War Zone Sunday night.
As we have frequently reported, UFOs, now known as unidentified aerial phenomena (UAP), are often confused with drones and balloons, although that doesn’t mean there still aren’t some odd, if not unexplainable, cases. Still, many in the UFO community roll their eyes at these claims as from Roswell on, balloons became a regular explanation for strange things in the sky. We must note that information remains limited as to what exactly occurred, so details could change as we find out more.