it down at the appropriate time. >> reporter: so would you urge us to put this in a different bucket than that? >> i think i was pretty clear. this was traveling at about 40,000 feet which posed a potential reasonable threat to civilian air traffic and the decision was made to take it down. dan. >> reporter: when the pilots approached it and they determined, i understand, that it was not manned, how did they determine that, and at that point, wouldn't it be possible to at least describe what they were looking at? did it resemble a balloon or airplane or what? >> again, we'll know more and have more information once we've recovered this. i will give credit to our pilots that they are very capable in terms of looking at an object, assessing whether or not this had the potential to be manned. at that altitude, very small,