The US military has shot down the suspected Chinese spy balloon on Saturday off the Carolina coast, according to the Associated Press.
This comes after the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) closed the airspace in North and South Carolina as the balloon drifts through.
An operation is currently underway to recover debris from the balloon, which had been flying at about 60,000 feet and estimated to be about the size of three school buses, AP reports.
Earlier on Saturday, President Joe Biden said that the U.S. will “take care” of the balloon first seen above Montana.
Biden, who is traveling to New York, told reporters, “we’re going to take care of it,” when asked if there are any plans to shoot down the balloon.
“The United States government has detected and is tracking a high-altitude surveillance balloon that is flying over the continental United States right now,” Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder said in a statement on Thursday. “NORAD [North American Aerospace Defense Command] continues to track and monitor it closely.”
The Chinese had acknowledged that the balloon belonged to Beijing, but they referred to the airship as a civilian device “used for scientific research such as meteorology.”
