Selfie image shows US pilot flying over Chinese ‘spy balloon’
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The US Department of Defense has released an image taken by an airman as he flew over the Chinese balloon shot down earlier this month.
The selfie was taken from the cockpit of a U-2 spy plane as military leaders tracked the high-altitude balloon’s progress over the continental US.
Beijing has maintained that the balloon was a weather ship blown off course.
But Washington says the balloon was part of a sprawling Chinese intelligence collection programme.
As the balloon flew over US territory, at least two planes gathered information on its features and trajectory.
A handout photo made available by the US Central Command (CENTCOM) Public Affairs shows a US Air Force pilot looking down at a suspected Chinese surveillance balloon as it hovered over the Central Continental United States. EPA-EFE/US DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE
A senior State Department official said earlier this month that fly-bys revealed it “was capable of conducting signals intelligence collection operations”.
Officials first became aware of the balloon when it crossed into Alaskan airspace on 28 January.
Fighter jets belonging to the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) – a joint operation between the US and Canada – identified the foreign object, but the military did not shoot it down at the time.
Officials explained they could not shoot the balloon down over land because its size and likely debris field posed a threat to civilians on the ground.
One defence official told US lawmakers earlier this month the balloon was as tall as the Statue of Liberty and had “a jetliner-size payload”.
The image released on Wednesday was taken the day before the aircraft was shot down off the coast of South Carolina on 4 February. It has reportedly “gained legendary status” inside the Pentagon.
The balloon was said to be hovering at 60,000 feet (18,200m) in the air.
When the balloon made it across several states and over to the Atlantic Ocean, where the military deemed it safer to destroy it, it was shot down with a single missile fired from an F-22 Raptor fighter jet that took off from Langley air force base in Virginia.
The wreckage was retrieved and is being analyzed.
U-2 planes routinely fly at altitudes over 70,000 feet, according to the Air Force.
