US fighter jet shoots down suspected “Chinese Balloon”

A.U.S military fighter jet shot down a suspected Chinese spy balloon off the coast of South Carolina on Saturday, a week after it first entered U.s airspace and lingered a dramatic-and public-spying saga that worsened Sinco -U.S relations

President Joe Biden said he had issued an order on Wednesday to take down the balloon, but the Pentagon had recommended waiting until it could be done over open water to safeguard civilians from debris crashing to Earth from thousands of feet above commercial air traffic.

“They successfully took it down and I want to compliment our aviators who did it’ Biden said. Multiple fighters and refuelling aircraft were involved in the mission, but only one-an F-22 fighter jet from Langley Air Force Base in Virginia took the shot at 2.39 p.m using a single AIM-9X supersonic heat-seeking, air-to-air missile a senior US military said.

China strongly condemned the military strike on an airship that it says was used for meteorological and other scientific purposes and which it said had strayed into US airspace” completely accidentally -claims flatly dismissed by U.S officials.