Chinese ‘spy’ balloon suspected to fly over US airspace, hard to shoot down as US expert says.

A suspected Chinese surveillance balloon was seen flying over the continental United States and this has sparked national security concerns. The US President Joe Biden and national security team officials have discussed options including shooting the balloon down, previously the military had decided not to shoot down the balloon due to the risk of falling debris. The substructure present beneath the balloon is believed to be the steering and surveillance apparatus is around 90 feet and its length is of 3 city buses. China claims the balloon is a civilian research vessel. A spokesperson for China’s Foreign Ministry described the incident as an “accident”. The spokesperson stated “it was entirely an unexpected situation caused by force majeure”. On Friday evening it was suspected that another Chinese spy balloon has been spotted above Latin America.

The suspected Chinese spy balloon could exit the east coast of the United States earliest by Saturday morning according to a NOAA weather model. Two US defense officials stated that the balloon is expected to reach East Coast and pass out to sea in the southeast, near the Carolinas. 

William Kim, a specialist in surveillance balloons at the Marathon Initiative think tank in Washington told that balloons are a valuable means of observation that are difficult to shoot down. Kim called it a ‘real possibility’ that a Chinese balloon has accidentally entered the US airspace and may have intended to collect data from US boundaries but might have malfunctioned. A spokesperson for China’s Foreign Ministry stated that the unmanned airship entered the US airspace accidently caused by “force majeure”.