“Investigating the US Coast Guard and Navy Search for Chinese Surveillance Balloon Debris”

US Coast Guard and Navy vessels and aircraft are involved in the search

A suspected Chinese surveillance balloon shot down off the US coast was about 60 meters high and carrying a payload the size of an airliner, US officials say.

At a briefing Monday, a defense official said the size and nature of the object influenced the decision not to shoot it down while it was over land.

“Imagine large debris weighing hundreds if not thousands of pounds falling from the sky,” Gen. Glen VanHerck said.

The US is still working to recover debris off the coast of South Carolina.

Remains of the object – which the US believes to be a spy balloon but China says is a weather monitoring ship that was blown astray – have been removed from a roughly 1,500 m (4,920 ft) by 1,500 m large area, but debris is believed to be spread over a much larger site.

Several fighter jets were involved in the downing operation, but only one US Air Force F-22 fired the shot at 14:39 local time (19:39 GMT) on Saturday. It threw debris about six nautical miles off the US coast.

“They have recovered some remains from the sea surface and weather conditions did not permit full underwater monitoring of the debris field,” National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said Monday.

He said US personnel “will be able to get there and get a better look at what’s at the bottom of the ocean in the coming days, but it’s only just begun.”

There are no plans to return the remains to China, officials said, adding that the recovered debris would be analyzed by intelligence experts.

A number of specialist vessels have been deployed to the area, including an oceanographic survey vessel that uses sonar and other means to map a debris field, Gen VanHerck, which controls both the US military’s Northern Command and the joint US-Canadian North American Air and Sea Forces Space Command Commands, or Norad, said.

He added that while the balloon is several hundred feet tall, the payload — the part that would carry the equipment — is about the size of a regional airliner.

Gen. VanHerck said the US was still working to determine if the debris contained potentially hazardous materials such as explosives or battery components.

The decision to launch the balloon sparked a diplomatic row between the US and China, prompting Secretary of State Antony Blinken to cancel a planned trip to Beijing aimed at defusing tensions.

On Monday, China accused the US of using “indiscriminate force” to down the balloon. It had “obviously overreacted and seriously violated the spirit of international law”.

The US assumes that the balloon was used to monitor sensitive military sites.

Admiral Mike Mullen, former chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, dismissed China’s suggestion it might have gone off course, saying it was manoeuvrable because “it has propellers”.

“It wasn’t an accident. That was on purpose. It was intelligence,” he added.

A Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman has confirmed that a second balloon currently hovering over Latin America is also Chinese.

Graphic of a high-altitude balloon showing a helium-filled balloon, solar panels, and an instrument bay that may contain cameras, radar, and communications equipment. They can fly at altitudes of 80,000 to 120,000 feet, higher than fighter jets and airliners

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