WASHINGTON — The U.S. has started to recover some parts from the Chinese balloon that an American F-22 fighter jet shot down off the coast of South Carolina, as Biden administration officials said the U.S. was still trying to figure out how much senior leaders in Beijing knew about the alleged spy mission.
The debris field where the balloon and its payload came down is about 15 American football fields long and the same distance wide, and the U.S. is doing a survey of the site and retrieving wreckage, Gen. Glen VanHerck, commander of the North American Aerospace Defense Command, told a briefing Monday. He said one concern was whether the equipment carries explosives or other hazardous materials.
Those were among new details that the administration disclosed about the balloon two days after it was shot down. VanHerck said the balloon was a “maneuverable platform” and the administration gained a better sense of what it could do during the time it moved across the U.S.
