US considering plan to down Chinese balloon over Atlantic

In a brief remark Saturday in response to a reporters question about the balloon, Biden said Were going to take care of it. The balloon was spotted Saturday morning over the Carolinas as it approached the Atlantic coast.In preparation for the operation, the Federal Aviation Administration temporarily closed airspace over the Carolina coastline, including the airports in Charleston and Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, and Wilmington, North Carolina, until at least 245 p.m. EST Saturday.


PTI | Washington DC | Updated: 05-02-2023 00:39 IST | Created: 05-02-2023 00:39 IST
US considering plan to down Chinese balloon over Atlantic
  • Country:
  • United States

The Biden administration is considering a plan to shoot down a large Chinese balloon suspected of conducting surveillance on the US military, by bringing it down once it is above the Atlantic Ocean where the remnants could potentially be recovered, according to four US officials.

Two of the officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitive operation, said President Joe Biden had given the go-ahead. In a brief remark Saturday in response to a reporter's question about the balloon, Biden said: "We're going to take care of it." The balloon was spotted Saturday morning over the Carolinas as it approached the Atlantic coast.

In preparation for the operation, the Federal Aviation Administration temporarily closed airspace over the Carolina coastline, including the airports in Charleston and Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, and Wilmington, North Carolina, until at least 2:45 p.m. EST Saturday. The FAA was rerouting air traffic from the area and warned of delays as a result of the flight restrictions.

Officials were aiming to time the operation so they could recover as much of the debris as possible before it sinks into the ocean. The Pentagon had previously estimated that the balloon, flying at about 60,000 feet in the air, was about the size of three school buses and that any debris field would be substantial.

Biden had been inclined to down the balloon over land when he was first briefed on it on Tuesday, but Pentagon officials advised against it, warning that the potential risk to people on the ground outweighed the assessment of potential Chinese intelligence gains.

China has denied any claims of spying and said it is a civilian-use balloon intended for meteorology research. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs emphasised that the balloon's journey was out of its control and urged the U.S. not to "smear" it based on the balloon.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

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