After a days-long diplomatic-spy thriller that felt straight out of a movie, US forces finally shot down what it was revealed today to be a Chinese spy balloon that was seen flying over the US in the past 24 hours, sparking a diplomatic crisis between Washington and Beijing.

The U.S. Civil Aviation Administration (FAA) today ordered a halt to takeoffs and landings at three North and South Carolina airports in a statement to “support the U.S. Department of Defense in national security efforts.” .

The American media, trying to interpret this announcement, claimed that this could be followed by an operation to shoot down a Chinese spy balloon … which happened.

The balloon, which flew diagonally southeast for five days from Idaho to North and South Carolina, was over the Atlantic Ocean at the time of impact, according to the New York Times.

“We will take care of it,” the American president said. Joe Biden reporters earlier today, addressing the issue of China’s spy balloon. After a few hours, it became clear what he meant.

The possibility of military action by the United States has already been considered since last Tuesday, when Biden updated Pentagon that a spy balloon entered US airspace near Idaho. Until last Wednesday, the balloon hovered over Montana and one Sino-American diplomatic crisis the crisis has already begun, which in the meantime led to the cancellation of the planned visit of the US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken V China.

The planned visit, which was cancelled, was to be Secretary Biden’s first visit to China.

The Chinese Foreign Ministry, for its part, tried to justify itself by claiming that it was a meteorological balloon, not a spy balloon, that accidentally deviated from its course.

However, the American side did not accept Beijing’s excuses. In contrast, Anthony Blinken spoke of “clear violation of US sovereignty and international law“.

There were warnings

According to the New York Times in a related article, US officials have relayed a message to Chinese officials on several occasions in recent days that the US military may shoot down a spy balloon.

The US Secretary of State told a Chinese diplomat in Washington Wednesday afternoon, the NY Times reported, that the US government has the right to take action to protect its interests, and he repeated the same thing in a phone call Friday with a senior Chinese diplomat and former foreign minister. del Wang Yi.

The US military leadership held a meeting on Wednesday led by the Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin. Austin himself, as well as Chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces General Mark Miley they demanded, according to the NY Times, that the Chinese balloon not be shot down while over the US mainland. However, today, after being off the coast of South Carolina in the Atlantic, the order was given to strike.

From F-22 strike

“We successfully shot it down, and I want to congratulate our pilots on this,” Joe Biden said today after the official announcement of the downing.

According to media reports, a Chinese spy balloon was shot down by American fighters: F-22 which took off from an air base located in Langley, Virginia. One AIM-9X missile is said to have been enough to complete the mission.

U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin announced the downing, saying the balloon was being used by China “to monitor strategic installations on the continental United States.”

Race for finds among the rubble

Now the next mission for US forces is to rush to the sea area where the Chinese balloon crashed in order to collect as much of its wreckage as possible in order to determine what equipment it carried, what tracking capabilities it had, and what kind of record/monitor.

“This recovery mission is already underway. How long this will last remains to be determined,” a senior US Department of Defense official told reporters, but stressed that the wreckage is in relatively shallow water.