The United States has finished searching for the wreckage of the Chinese balloon that crashed on the coast of South Carolina over the Atlantic Ocean on February 4, the Northern Command of the United States Armed Forces said on Friday.
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“A recovery operation was completed off the coast of South Carolina on February 16 after US Navy forces assigned to US Northern Command successfully located and recovered the wreckage of a People’s Republic of China high-altitude observation balloon,” the command said in a statement.
“The final pieces of the wreckage are being turned over to a Federal Bureau of Investigation laboratory in Virginia for counterintelligence testing,” the command said.
A large white Chinese balloon with advanced technology flew over the continental United States in the last days of January and early February. It was shot down on the coast of South Carolina over the Atlantic Ocean on February 4 by an F-22 Raptor fighter jet on the orders of US President Joe Biden.
China justified that the balloon was used for weather research, but the Pentagon described the balloon flight as a high-tech espionage operation.
The balloon flew much higher than most aircraft and flew over at least one sensitive US military facility.
According to US officials, countermeasures were taken to prevent confidential information from being obtained by the balloon’s instruments during the flight.
The balloon was shot down only when it was already over the ocean, as this was the only way to guarantee that people on the ground would not be injured, officials explained.
Since the downing of the Chinese balloon on February 4, US warplanes have shot down three more objects – one near Alaska, another over Canada and a third over Lake Huron.
According to Washington, preliminary information shows that these objects were not involved in China’s espionage program.
