The US government announced on the 17th that it had successfully completed the task of collecting detectors and other debris from a Chinese reconnaissance balloon that was shot down over the coast of South Carolina on February 4, and is analyzing it.
But US and Canadian authorities said they had called off the search for three other unidentified objects shot down over the weekend without locating their wreckage.
US President Joe Biden said this week that US intelligence authorities believe that the three downed flying objects are likely related to private companies, hobbies, or research institutes, not Chinese reconnaissance programs.
The US Northern Command said it had sent the last remains of a Chinese reconnaissance balloon that had been shot down by a Sidewinder air-to-air missile to an FBI laboratory in Virginia.
White House National Security Council (NSC) Strategic Communications Coordinator John Kirby said, “A significant amount of salvaged items, including payload structures as well as some optical and electronic equipment, is located in an FBI laboratory in Quantico, Virginia.
He also explained that he learned a lot by observing scout balloons as they hovered over the United States.
US military authorities said Navy and Coast Guard ships that had been scouring the waters for nearly two weeks had left the area. “Air and maritime safety alerts have been lifted,” the US Northern Command said in a statement.
The Chinese reconnaissance balloon hovered over the United States and Canada for a week before being shot down over the Atlantic Ocean by order of President Biden. China denied that the downed balloon was a Chinese reconnaissance balloon.
VOA News
*This article was sourced from Reuters.
