U.S. military leaders detected late last month what they surmised was a Chinese surveillance balloon entering Alaskan airspace, but they chose not to shoot it down at that time because it was not considered a lethal danger, a top U.S. general told reporters Monday.
“It was my assessment that this balloon did not present a physical military threat to North America,” said Air Force Gen. Glen VanHerck, the commander of U.S. Northern Command and North American Aerospace Defense Command. “Therefore, I could not take immediate action because it was not demonstrating a hostile act or hostile intent.”
VanHerck later got approval to intercept the balloon, which occurred in the Atlantic Ocean off South Carolina on Saturday, but only after it had spent several days transiting across the U.S. heartland. The U.S. Navy launched a search Monday in the waters off South Carolina for remnants of what officials said was the balloon’s surveillance equipment.
