First close-up images of Chinese ‘spy balloon’ revealed as US Navy pulls it from ocean
- Sailors recovered the surveillance device, now a mess of plastic and fabric, in a bid to learn more about its capabilities
- The balloon had landed in the Atlantic after being shot down by a single air-to-air missile from a US Air Force F-22 fighter aircraft
The US Navy on Tuesday published photos that capture the moment sailors pulled a downed Chinese surveillance balloon out of the Atlantic Ocean.
A US Air Force F-22 fighter plane fired a single air-to-air missile to shoot down the high-altitude balloon over the coast of South Carolina on Saturday.
China previously admitted that it owned the balloon, which first appeared last week while flying over the Pacific northwest.
The F-22 was operating at an altitude of 58,000 feet (17,700 metres) when it sent the AIM-9X Sidewinder missile into the balloon, which was hovering somewhere between 60,000 and 65,000 feet (18,000 to 20,000 metres), sending the system plummeting into waters several kilometres off the coast, a senior US defence official said over the weekend.
Soldiers have since been collecting debris from the balloon to gather more information about its capabilities.
The Navy photos, published by the Defence Visual Information Distribution Service (DVIDS), show sailors pulling the dismembered balloon, which is now a mess of plastic and fabric, from the Atlantic Ocean for investigation.
General Glen VanHerck, commander of NORAD and US Northern Command, told reporters on Monday that he expected the debris field to be as large as “15 football fields by 15 football fields”.
He added that the balloon was about 200 feet (60 metres) tall with a payload the size of a “jet airliner”, and probably weighed a few thousand pounds.
A second balloon was also spotted last week floating over Latin America; China confirmed it belonged to them on Monday.
