U.S. downs Chinese balloon over ocean, moves to recover debris
WASHINGTON — The U.S. military on Saturday shot down a suspected Chinese spy balloon off the Carolina coast on orders from President Joe Biden, after it traversed sensitive military sites across North America, becoming the latest flashpoint in tensions between Washington and Beijing.
Biden said he wanted the balloon downed on Wednesday, but was advised that the best time for the operation would be when it was over water. Military officials determined that bringing it down over land from an altitude of 60,000 feet would pose an undue risk to people on the ground.
The balloon was spotted Saturday morning over the Carolinas as it approached the Atlantic coast. At about 2:40 p.m. an F-22 fighter jet fired a missile at the balloon, puncturing it while it was about 6 nautical miles off the coast near Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, defense officials said.
The debris landed in 47 feet of water, shallower than they had expected. Still, it was not clear how long the recovery would take. The Navy is taking the lead, supported by the Coast Guard.
“They successfully took it down and I want to compliment our aviators who did it," Biden said after getting off Air Force One en route to Camp David.
“President Biden's order to take down the PRC surveillance balloon was executed professionally and surgically by Air Force pilots from Northern Command over U.S. 12-mile territorial waters,” said U.S. Rep. Joe Courtney, D-Conn., the second most senior Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee. “The PRC committed a blatant violation of international law with this intrusion into U.S. airspace, and the President's action was entirely justified. After our sea services conduct a retrieval of the platform, our forensic experts will go to work so the international community gets the full story of this unacceptable provocation.”
The spectacle had Americans looking to the skies all week, wondering whether the mysterious balloon had floated over toward them.
On Saturday, Ashlyn Preaux, 33, went out to get her mail in Forestbrook, South Carolina, and noticed her neighbors looking up — and there it was, the balloon in the cloudless blue sky. Then she saw fighter jets circling and the balloon get hit.
“I did not anticipate waking up to be in a `Top Gun' movie today,” she said.
U.S. defense and military officials said Saturday the balloon entered the U.S. air defense zone north of the Aleutian Islands on Jan. 28 and moved largely over land across Alaska and then into Canadian airspace in the Northwest Territories on Monday. It crossed back into U.S. territory over northern Idaho on Tuesday, the day the White House said Biden was first briefed on it.
The balloon was spotted Thursday over Montana, which is home to one of America's three nuclear missile silo fields at Malmstrom Air Force Base.
The Americans were able to collect intelligence on the balloon as it flew over the U.S., giving them a number of days to analyze it and learn how it moved and what it was capable of surveilling, a senior defense official said.
China has continued to claim that the balloon was merely a weather research “airship” that had been blown off course. The Pentagon rejected that out of hand — as well as China's contention that it was not being used for surveillance and had only limited navigational ability.
China has denied any claims of spying and said it is a civilian-use balloon intended for meteorology research. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs emphasized that the balloon's journey was out of its control and urged the U.S. not to “smear” it because of the balloon.
Television footage showed a small explosion, followed by the giant deflated balloon descending like a ribbon toward the water.
Officials were aiming to time the operation so they could recover as much of the debris as possible before it sinks into the ocean. The Pentagon had previously estimated that any debris field would be substantial.