How US shot down Chinese 'spy' balloon and what's next
A Chinese balloon, which has been floating over the US for the past week, was shot down in a puff of smoke and debris on Saturday. Here is how the US fighter jets carried out the operation and what's next.
US military fighter aircraft shot down a suspected spy balloon from China as it floated off the coast of South Carolina on Saturday, drawing to a close a dramatic saga that shone a spotlight on worsening China-US relations.
The balloon, which Beijing claimed was a weather observation airship and had strayed off its course, was considered a "clear violation" of US sovereignty and resulted in US Secretary of State Antony Blinken postponing his visit to China.
The US Air Force action triggered a diplomatic maelstrom and blew up on social media as Navy vessels were collecting the debris of the deflated balloon which fell into the Atlantic after the shootdown.
What happened so far and what's next
The balloon first entered US airspace on January 28 before moving into Canadian airspace on Monday January 30. It then re-entered US airspace on January 31, a US defense official said. Once it crossed over US land, it did not return to the open waters, making a shootdown difficult.
The Pentagon spotted the high-altitude Chinese surveillance balloon hovering over Montana in the US, home to one of three nuclear missile launch facilities at Malmstrom Air Force Base on Friday.
President Joe Biden said he had issued an order on Wednesday to take down the balloon, which had been flying at about 60,000 feet and was estimated to be about the size of three school buses, but the Pentagon had recommended waiting until it could be done over open water to safeguard civilians from debris crashing to Earth from thousands of feet (meters) above commercial air traffic.
The spy balloon saga led to the postponement of US Secretary of State Antony Blinken's first official trip to Beijing. Although the trip was not formally announced, both Beijing and Washington were talking about his imminent arrival.
On Saturday, the massive white orb was shot down by the Air Force over the Atlantic on live television. The balloon was shot down about six nautical miles off the US coast.
Multiple fighter and refueling aircraft were involved in the mission, but only one -- an F-22 fighter jet from Langley Air Force Base in Virginia -- took the shot at 2:39 p.m. (1939 GMT), using a single AIM-9X supersonic, heat-seeking, air-to-air missile, Reuters reported.
The shootdown came shortly after the US government ordered a halt to flights in and out of three regional airports -- Wilmington, Myrtle Beach and Charleston -- due to what it said at the time was an undisclosed "national security effort." The flights resumed on Saturday afternoon, as reported by Reuters.
Once the deflated balloon crashed into the water, the debris field stretched at least 7 miles and was in the water 47 feet deep. The recovery effort includes retrieving pieces of the sensor package and other parts that may be salvageable.
Officials said the USS Oscar Austin, a Navy destroyer, the USS Carter Hall, a dock landing ship, and the USS Philippine Sea, a guided missile cruiser, are all part of the recovery effort, and a salvage vessel will arrive in a few days. They said Navy divers will be on hand if needed, along with unmanned vessels that can recover debris and lift it back up to the ships. The FBI will also be present to categorize and assess anything recovered, officials said, as reported by the news agency AP.
In addition to the already collected technical data during the balloon's voyage across the US, the experts expect to gather data and learn a lot about what it was doing, how it was doing it and why China may be using things like this following the recovery of the salvageable parts of the debris.
What awaits to be seen is China's action after it blasted the Pentagon's decision to shoot down an alleged Chinese spy balloon spotted flying over North America, accusing the United States of "clearly overreacting and seriously violating international practice", threatening repercussions.