One of the main concerns, aside from potential surveillance and characterization of the objects and balloons, involves civil aviation, given that the last three objects were transiting through U.S. and Canadian airspace at altitudes at which commercial airlines travel regularly, especially those coming across the pond, as we say—across the Atlantic—and in the Arctic from Europe or making their way to Europe.
It was a concern, and that was one thing both governments considered before taking action against those objects.