Pentagon finishes collecting Chinese spy balloon debris in Atlantic

2023-02-17

Pentagon finishes collecting Chinese spy balloon debris from the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean: Pieces sent to FBI lab for analysis – while other three UFOs remain a mystery

The FBI is now analyzing pieces of the balloon shot down on February 4
Search is ongoing for the three unidentified objects shot over last weekend
Biden on Thursday said there was no indication the recent UFOs are Chinese
He said they could be commercial or amaetur, and not used for spying

The U.S. has finished efforts to recover the remnants of the Chinese spy balloon shot down off the coast of South Carolina.

The Navy, Coast Guard and FBI personnel are believed to have collected all of the balloon debris off the ocean floor, which included key equipment from the payload that could reveal what information it was able to monitor and collect.

U.S. Northern Command said in a statement that the recovery operations ended Thursday and the final pieces are on their way to the FBI lab in Virginia for analysis. It said air and maritime restrictions off South Carolina have been lifted.

The announcement capped three dramatic weeks that saw U.S. fighter jets shoot down four airborne objects – the Chinese balloon on February 4 and three much smaller objects about a week later over Canada, Alaska and Lake Huron.

The end of the operation coincides with an Illinois club saying their balloon went missing over Alaska at the same time a fighter jet shot one down nearby.

The U.S. has finished efforts to recover the remnants of the Chinese spy balloon shot down off the coast of South Carolina

They are the first known peacetime shootdowns of unauthorized objects in U.S. airspace.

The officials also said the search for the small airborne object that was shot down over Lake Huron has stopped, and nothing has been recovered.

U.S. officials spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss military operations. The U.S. and Canada have also failed to recover any debris so far from the other two objects which were shot down over the Yukon and northern Alaska.

While the military is confident the balloon shot down off South Carolina was a surveillance airship operated by China, the Biden administration has admitted that the three smaller objects were likely civilian-owned balloons that were targeted during the heightened response, after U.S. homeland defense radars were recalibrated to detect slower moving airborne items.

Due to their small size and the remote areas where they were shot down, officials acknowledge that recovering any debris is difficult and probably unlikely. Those last two searches, however, have not been formally called off.

Much of the Chinese balloon fell into about 50 feet (15 meters) of water, and the Navy was able to collect remnants floating on the surface, and divers and unmanned naval vessels pulled up the rest from the bottom of the ocean. Northern Command said Friday that all of the Navy and Coast Guard ships have left the area.

On Thursday, President Joe Biden directed national security adviser Jake Sullivan to lead an interagency team to establish ‘sharper rules’ to track, monitor and potentially shoot down unknown aerial objects.

Meanwhile, key questions about the Chinese balloon remain unanswered, including what, if any, intelligence it was able to collect as it flew over sensitive military sites in the United States, and whether it was able to transmit anything back to China.

The U.S. tracked it for several days after it left China, said a U.S. official, who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive intelligence. It appears to have been blown off its initial trajectory, which was toward the U.S. territory of Guam, and ultimately flew over the continental U.S., the official said.

Balloons and other unidentified objects have been previously spotted over Guam, a strategic hub for the U.S. Navy and Air Force in the western Pacific.

It’s unclear how much control China retained over the balloon once it veered from its original trajectory. A second U.S. official said the balloon could have been externally maneuvered or directed to loiter over a specific target, but it´s unclear whether Chinese forces did so.

U.S. Northern Command said in a statement that the recovery operations ended Thursday and the final pieces are on their way to the FBI lab in Virginia for analysis

The announcement capped three dramatic weeks that saw U.S. fighter jets shoot down four airborne objects – the large Chinese balloon on February 4 and three much smaller objects about a week later over Canada, Alaska and Lake Huron

Republicans mock Biden for having fighter jets potentially shoot down a $13 hobby balloon

When the Bottlecap Balloon Brigade discovered their hobby balloon went missing the same time fighter jets were scrambled to down a mysterious object over Alaska, theories started swirling.

Was their $12 inflatable taken out by a $400,000 Sidewinder missile fired from a $143 million F-22 in a military operation ordered by President Joe Biden?

They reported their property ‘missing in action’ and have been in contact with the FBI, but whether their balloon was targeted is yet to be confirmed as the Pentagon tries to retrieve the debris.

Yet their involvement in the UFO hysteria of the last two weeks has led to mounting questions, and mockery of the White House.

Ted Cruz wrote on Twitter: ‘To be fair, Biden is providing is powerful deterrence for any high school science clubs that might try to invade America….’

Former Republican congressman and Army reservist Peter Meijer added: ‘RIP to the Northern Illinois Bottlecap Balloon Brigade’s ~$80 ham radio transmitter balloon, likely the victim of friendly fire by a $143,000,000 USAF F-22 firing a $485,000 AIM-9X Sidewinder missile during the Great Balloon Panic of 2023.’

The hobby balloon’s last known location over Alaska came several hours before a fighter jet downed an unknown object several hundred miles away over Canada. A map of the hobby balloon’s predicted path indicates it was heading towards the site where the UFO was downed

An unidentified object shot down by U.S. fighter jets using a $400,000 Sidewinder missile could have been a balloon launched by an Illinois-based hobby group. It’s been speculated the hobby group could have used the balloon pictured above, which can be bought for under $15

The Chinese spy balloon triggered a diplomatic crisis between Washington and Beijing – and the subsequent hysteria has led to at least three more unidentified objects being shot down

The Northern Illinois Bottlecap Balloon Brigade (NIBBB) reported one of its balloons ‘missing in action’ around the same location – and at the time time – a U.S. Air Force jet downed an unidentified object near Alaska using a $400,000 Sidewinder missile.

NIBBB said its ‘K9YO’ balloon last reported its location shortly before 1am GMT on Saturday, February 11 (8pm EST on February 10), near the coast of southwest Alaska.

Later on Saturday, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau declared an ‘unidentified object’ was downed over Canada’s Yukon territory, several hundred miles from K9YO’s last known location.

Modeling shared by NIBBB shows its balloon was headed in the direction of Yukon before it vanished – and opens up the possibility it was one of the suspicious objects down by the U.S. military.

The object shot down by a a U.S. Air Force F-22 fighter jet over Mayo, Yukon, was variously described by officials in Canada and the U.S. as a ‘cylindrical’, metallic balloon with a payload.

Balloons used by hobby groups like NIBBB often fit the same description. They are usually attached with a small, solar-powered payload that transmits location data back to listening posts on the ground. Typically, these payloads are no larger than a credit card.

NIBBB has not said its balloon was definitely the downed object, but an overview of the circumstantial evidence by Aviation Week leaves the possibility wide open.

Far from posing a military or surveillance threat, the ‘pico balloons’ launched by hobby groups like NIBBB often do little more than relay location data – or, in some cases, information about the weather.

They float around until they’re damaged or brought down by bad weather. K9YO was airborne for 123 days and 18 hours before it stopped reporting its location.

In that time, it circumnavigated the globe six times.

Members of the Northern Illinois Bottlecap Balloon Brigade, whose balloon went missing near the area where an unidentified object was shot down by a fighter jet over Alaska

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