Chinese balloon debris recovery mission off S. Carolina wraps up

WASHINGTON — The United States has completed an effort to recover the remains of a large hot air balloon that was shot down off the coast of South Carolina, and analysis of the debris so far supports the conclusion that it was a Chinese spy balloon. States, US officials said on Friday.

Officials said the United States believes personnel from the Navy, Coast Guard and FBI have collected all of the balloon’s debris from the ocean floor, including key equipment, from the payload. may disclose information that they may monitor and collect.

The US Northern Command said in a statement that the recall operations ended on Thursday and the final pieces were on their way to the FBI lab in Virginia for analysis. It said air and maritime restrictions off the coast of South Carolina had been lifted.

Dramatic three-week limited announcement that saw US warplanes shoot down four airborne objects — a large Chinese hot air balloon on February 4 and three much smaller objects about a week later in Canada, Alaska and Lake Huron. These are the first known peacetime shootings of unauthorized objects in US airspace.

Officials also said the search for the small aerial object shot down over Lake Huron had stopped and nothing had been recovered. US officials spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the military operations. The United States and Canada have also failed to recover any debris from two other objects that were shot down in the Yukon and northern Alaska.

While the military is convinced that the balloon shot down off the coast of South Carolina was a surveillance balloon operated by China, the Biden administration has acknowledged that the three smaller objects are likely balloons belonging to China. Civilian property was targeted in an enhanced response, after the detections by US domestic defense radars were recalibrated to detect slower-moving objects in the air.

Because of their small size and remote area where they were shot down, officials acknowledge that recovering any debris is difficult and possibly unlikely. However, those last two searches have yet to be officially canceled.

Most of China’s hot air balloons fall into about 50 feet of water, and the Navy can collect the remnants floating on the surface, while divers and unmanned naval ships pull the remains from the ocean floor. Northern Command said Friday that all Navy and Coast Guard ships have left the area.

Copp reported from aboard a US military plane.