Not too long ago, I saw at least 8 F16s leave the Sioux Falls airport, headed south, in a single day.

More than that in total over several other days, blackhawks, chinooks, more f16s, etc.

This was not too long before the snatch and grab of Maduro.

My total guess would be we've got a lot more airframes than normal positioned at or near the southern border.

Beyond that... uh, aluminum foil type balloons basically show up quite brightly on radar screens and such... they're a lot like chaff.

So, if the computer systems attached to the radar system failed to flag it as 'probably a balloon or something', well, it could have just been blown along by the wind at approximately drone speeds, at approximately a drone altitude, on a trajectory that I guess looked hostile or suspicious.

And if it was a bunch of aluminum foil balloons, that could look like a drone formation or swarm, if they more or less got picked up by the same air current.

Apparently the explanation is 'we thought it was a cartel drone swarm'

“The FAA and [Department of War] acted swiftly to address a cartel drone incursion. The threat has been neutralized, and there is no danger to commercial travel in the region. The restrictions have been lifted and normal flights are resuming,” Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy said in a statement.

So... yeah, itchy trigger finger, and it means aluminum foil party balloons are apparently, in at least some conditions, not able to be filtered out as party balloons by the involved radar/computer systems and/or whatever humans are in charge of making a call.

Or, who knows, maybe at this point it was fucking Grok that made the call, after all, Hegseth made a big show of incorperating xAI into as many military systems as possible.