As of noon Friday, the maneuverable Chinese surveillance balloon that was over Montana yesterday, was at an altitude of about 60,000 feet and floating over the center of the continental United States in an easterly direction, the Department of Defense said. It poses no risk to commercial aviation, military assets or people on the ground, said the Pentagon.
The balloon is the size of about three school buses. It crossed Alaska over the Aleutian Chain and entered airspace over the mainland of Alaska between Nome and Kotzebue, and then traveled through Canada to Montana. Officials say it has been over Kansas City, Missouri and continues heading east, which would take it close to the nation’s capital and main population centers.
The North American Aerospace Defense Command is continuing to monitor and leaders are reviewing options, said Air Force Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder, who held a media briefing on Friday.
“The balloon has violated U.S. airspace and international law, which is unacceptable,” he said, adding that the U.S. has communicated that to Chinese leaders at multiple levels.
The balloon is carrying surveillance gear as well as a payload, Ryder said. He didn’t reveal what the payload is.
A reason not to shoot it down at this point, he said, is that besides not posing a threat to people or aircraft, the resulting debris from a strike of this large balloon could be harmful to people on the ground and result in property damage.
The balloon most likely will continue floating over the U.S. for the next few days and updates will be provided as needed, he said.
“Once the balloon was detected, we acted immediately to protect against the collection of sensitive information,” he added, a statement that has been challenged by critics who said the Defense Department didn’t reveal the whereabouts of the balloon until it reached Montana. Bloomberg News reported that the White House kept spy balloon’s presence secret for fear of derailing the trip to China by Sec. of State Antony Blinken. But then, local media in Billings, Montana published a picture of it.
An apparent explosion over Billings, Montana, seen in a video posted by a private citizen and widely circulated on the internet, may be a fake. There is no indication that the Department of Defense has shot down the balloon.
Montana Gov. Greg Gianforte, who was not informed about the balloon over Montana buy the Pentagon until it was already in Montana airspace, issued a statement:
“I received an informational briefing yesterday on the situation involving a suspected Chinese spy balloon flying over Montana. From the spy balloon to the Chinese Communist Party spying on Americans through TikTok to CCP-linked companies buying American farmland, I’m deeply troubled by the constant stream of alarming developments for our national security.”
Gianforte said, “If it was up to Montanans, this thing would have been taken out of the sky the moment it entered our sovereign airspace.”
Al Jazeera’s Kimberly Halkett, reporting from D.C., said that the balloon was first spotted by bystanders in the state of Montana.
“It was spotted by people on the ground who were wondering what was in the sky. That is how the US government first learned about this, incredibly,” Halkett said. “It was then that the US government started tracking it.”
Secretary of State Antony Blinken called it “a clear violation of U.S. sovereignty and international law…An irresponsible act.” He canceled his trip to China after the photo and news leaked out about the spy balloon.
The Chinese government says it is just a research airship that deviated from its course.
“The airship is from China. It is a civilian airship used for research, mainly meteorological, purposes. Affected by the Westerlies and with limited self-steering capability, the airship deviated far from its planned course. The Chinese side regrets the unintended entry of the airship into US airspace due to force majeure. The Chinese side will continue communicating with the US side and properly handle this unexpected situation caused by force majeure,” the People’s Republic of China said in a press release on its website.
On Friday evening, the Pentagon confirmed that a second Chinese spy balloon was “transiting Latin America.”
