NORFOLK, Va. — A team of sailors assigned to Joint Expeditionary Base Little Creek fished what is believed to be the high-altitude Chinese surveillance balloon out of the Atlantic a day after it was shot down, officials confirmed Tuesday.
Photos released by the U.S. Navy show the sailors, who were assigned to Explosive Ordnance Disposal Group 2 and the USS Carter Hall, working to pull the balloon into their boat sometime Sunday.
It was brought down around 2:40 p.m. Saturday by an F-22 Raptor fighter from Langley Air Force Base’s 1st Fighter Wing, Gen. Glen VanHerck, commander of the North American Aerospace Defense Command and U.S. Northern Command, said Monday. The AIM-9X Sidewinder missile was fired at the large white orb, scattering debris about 6 miles off the South Carolina coast.
Debris recovery efforts launched Sunday at 10 a.m., with the USS Carter Hall, an amphibious landing ship out of the Virginia Beach base, acting as the lead ship.
The Carter Hall’s search was supported by the USS Oscar Austin and USS Philippine Sea from Norfolk, as well as the USNS Pathfinder, a survey ship that has been mapping the ocean floor using sonar.
Agents with the FBI and Naval Criminal Investigative Service are embedded with salvage operations personnel to assist in counterintelligence work, VanHerck said.
Officials detected the balloon Jan. 28, when it entered U.S. airspace over the Aleutian Islands off the Alaska coast. It then passed over Canada and reentered U.S. airspace over Idaho on Tuesday, the Defense Department said. On Wednesday, President Joe Biden gave the order to shoot down the balloon once there was no risk to people on the ground.
———
