US fighter jets shoot down suspected Chinese spy balloon off the SC coast
The U.S. has shot down the Chinese spy balloon off the South Carolina coast Saturday afternoon, the Department of Defense confirmed.
It was shot down by fighter jets over the Atlantic Ocean in U.S. territorial waters. In a statement about downing the balloon, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin III did not indicate where along the coast.
But a number of people in the Myrtle Beach area reported seeing the incident.
President Joe Biden told reporters he gave the military the order on Wednesday to shoot down the balloon as soon as possible. The Pentagon recommended that happen when it got over the ocean so debris wouldn’t hurt people on the ground.
U.S. officials believe that the balloon was collecting information on military operations. The military is now working to recover what is left of the balloon and its equipment.
“It was two fighter jets dancing with this thing going around and around it,” Pawleys Island resident Jeffrey Billie told The New York Times. He said he saw a third jet strike the balloon with a missile.
A Myrtle Beach photographer told CNN he saw a missile shoot down the balloon, adding, “the balloon just kinda popped... It’s visible from Myrtle Beach.”
Earlier in the day, residents in the Charlotte area took to social media to say they spotted the spy balloon around 10 a.m. Saturday as the balloon trekked east in the skies above North Carolina.
Meanwhile, around 1:15 p.m., the FAA issued a ground stop for flights at the Wilmington, Myrtle Beach and Charleston airports until 2:30 p.m., after closing the air space around them. The FAA later extended the ground stop until 3:30 p.m., then again to 5:15 p.m.
But at 3:15 p.m., after the balloon was shot down, the FAA said flights to and from the airports ”are resuming. Other airspace has been reopened. Normal operations resuming.”
Earlier Saturday, Biden said, “We’re gonna take care of it,” referring to the balloon.
Balloon spotted all around Charlotte
Plenty of people in the Charlotte region hopped online to post pictures, including WCNC-TV weatherman Brad Panovich. He tweeted he saw it outside his South Charlotte backyard around 9:45 a.m.
“Chinese spy balloon over Charlotte,” resident Matt Comer posted on Twitter, with a picture of the craft in the sky above East Charlotte. “Small white dot. Bad photo from out my second floor window. All I had was my phone.”
And a Harrisburg resident said he saw the balloon over his home a few minutes after 10 a.m.
Charlotte resident Brett Pauley II posted a video of the balloon, a dot in the clear skies.
And the York County, South Carolina, Sheriff’s Office told residents on Twitter Saturday to “be responsible” and not shoot toward the balloon, because “what goes up will come down, including your bullets.”
The White House had briefed governors on the surveillance balloon ahead of its arrival over the Charlotte area, a White House official told McClatchy.
Eyes on the sky
The North American Aerospace Defense Command was closely monitoring the surveillance balloon, Air Force Brigadier General Pat Ryder said at a news conference on Friday.
It was first spotted this week over the skies of Montana.
A NOAA trajectory map on Friday predicted the balloon would head from the central U.S. to above the North Carolina mountains and then just north of Charlotte, according to McClatchy. The balloon would then travel across southeastern North Carolina to the ocean, the map showed.
On Twitter, Asheville residents posted sightings around 7:45 a.m. Saturday.
Concerns over military bases in NC
U.S. Sen. Thom Tillis, R-NC, warned the balloon’s trajectory “includes flyovers near Fort Bragg and Camp Lejeune.”
“President Biden’s decision not to destroy it even as it passed through sparsely populated areas is puzzling, and we deserve answers,” Tillis said on Twitter just before 4 p.m. Friday.
But military leaders have advised against shooting down the balloon out of concern for the safety of civilians on the ground who could be hurt by falling debris, the White House said, according to The Washington Post.
Fort Bragg, bordering Fayetteville, is the largest U.S. Army base with about 52,000 active duty soldiers and 12,624 Reservists. Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune is a massive, 246-square-mile military training facility in Jacksonville at the coast.
About the suspected Chinese spy balloon
Ryder declined to specify the balloon’s path other than “eastward,” while insisting the balloon “does not present a military or physical threat to people on the ground at this time.”
CBS News reported: “China acknowledged Friday that a high-altitude balloon spotted this week over Montana does in fact belong to Beijing, but it referred to the airship as a civilian device ‘used for scientific research such as meteorology.’ ”
NORAD said Thursday the balloon was far higher than the altitudes of commercial airliners, although media reports on Friday quoted pilots saying the balloon was too close for comfort.
“We do know the balloon has violated U.S. airspace and international law, which is unacceptable,” Ryder said.
Downing the balloon over land “posed an undue risk to people,” the Department of Defense said in Saturday’s statement.
Under Biden’s direction, military leaders opted to down the balloon over U.S. waters, “while closely monitoring its path and intelligence collection activities,” according to the DOD statement.
DOD officials thanked Canada for helping track and analyze the balloon through NORAD as the craft crossed the continent.
McClatchy Senior National Security and White House correspondent Michael Wilner contributed reporting.
This story was originally published February 3, 2023 at 4:30 PM with the headline "US fighter jets shoot down suspected Chinese spy balloon off the SC coast."