UPDATES: FAA Closes, Reopens Montana Airspace; NORAD Releases Statement on ‘Anomaly’

On Saturday the airspace over part of northern Montana was closed and then reopened by the FAA for unspecified reasons related to the DoD. Montana Republican Rep. Matt Rosendale blamed the closure on “an object that could interfere with commercial air traffic.” The airspace was reopened not long after news about the shutdown began trending on Twitter Saturday evening.

[Updates are available at the end of this article.]

Reports flew on Saturday evening that the FAA had closed airspace around Havre, Montana for Department of Defense activities, including from national media like CNN and Fox News.

The story broke in the hours after another high-altitude object was shot down over northern Canada after being tracked by NORAD.

As buzz was reaching pitch, Rep. Rosendale tweeted that he had been in contact with NORCOM (U.S. Northern Command) and the airspace had been closed “due to an object that could interfere with commercial air traffic.”

“The DOD will resume efforts to observe and ground the object in the morning,” he wrote.

However, a very short time later the FAA announced the skies in the area were reopened, and referred any questions about the situation directly to NORAD.

Soon after, Rep. Rosendale also posted an update on the closure.

Montana is where the Chinese spy balloon that traversed the country surveilling sensitive military and nuclear sites was first exposed to the public thanks to civilians snapping photos and capturing video.

The flurry of activity on Saturday has resulted in some unusual trending discussions on social media.

UPDATE: NORAD and NORCOM have issued a statement on the closure of airspace over Montana on Saturday, saying that a “radar anomaly” was detected and that “fighter aircraft” were sent to investigate, but were unable to discover the source.

This post may be updated as new information is made available.