Days after the United States government had claimed to have detected an alleged Chinese spy balloon in American airspace, the airship was shot down on 4 February 2023.
The giant balloon, which was the size of around 3 buses, was shot down over the Atlantic Ocean after it flew from Montana to South Carolina. US President Joe Biden gave clearance as soon as the balloon could be destroyed without putting civilians in danger as it fell.
After a fighter aircraft eliminated the balloon, the Pentagon launched a mission to recover equipment from the debris.
“On Wednesday, when I was briefed on the balloon, I ordered the Pentagon to shoot it down as soon as possible. They decided - without doing damage to anyone on the ground - the best time to do that was as it got over water, outside within the 12-mile limit,” Biden said.
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“This afternoon, at the direction of President Biden, fighter aircraft assigned to US Northern Command successfully brought down the high-altitude surveillance balloon launched by and belonging to the People’s Republic of China (PRC) over the water off the coast of South Carolina in US airspace. The balloon, which was being used by the PRC in an attempt to surveil strategic sites in the continental United States, was brought down above US territorial waters,” Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin said.
The Pentagon official told reporters soon thereafter that they took immediate steps to protect against the balloon's collection of sensitive information mitigating its intelligence value to China.
(With agency inputs)