I had a work-study job in college at our small local airport working for the FAA. I mostly clipped new FAA communications into 3-ring binders and tore off expired ticker tape weather reports for a couple of hours a day.
My boss was old school government employee, straight and square. One day we were talking and he handed me a FAA business card with a UFO reporting 800 phone number. Odd I thought, and put it in my wallet.
Years later I lost my wallet in a phone booth (am old). I got a call from someone who found my wallet and wanted to return it. He came over with the wallet which had everything still in it, including cash. The only thing missing was the UFO card. I've never seen another one.
I think the government claimed after the first one they increased the sensitivity of the "airborne thingamajiggie" detector they have. Which is one of those answers that raises far more questions than it addresses.
Still think the occupation governments in both Washington and Olympia are a far greater threat to me than any airborne thingamajiggie, though.
So the government workers were basically ignoring everything that showed up on their radar?
Like Homer Simpson at the Nuclear plant
No I think it was more they had tuned the radar so that they didn't show up at all. So I guess like when he dumped a bucket of water over his console to stop all the alarms from going off.
No, like a lookout not reporting every seagull he sees. Not everything that reflects radio waves is an enemy aircraft, so you're always going to be culling signatures that are too small or too slow. If you build a radar station to watch for bombers and ICBMs crossing the arctic then a balloon flying at or below windspeed isn't what you're looking for.
Most innocuous explanation is that they increased sensitivity (or lowered reporting threshold or whatever) because they're more wary of potential attacks from China or Russia, possibly because they're preparing for a conflict around Taiwan.