The Navy Expeditionary Combat Force’s Explosive Ordnance Disposal Group 2 worked on Sunday to collect pieces of the high-altitude surveillance balloon that was shot down by an F-22 Raptor fighter jet off the coast of Myrtle Beach.

Officials say that the balloon first came into the U.S. air defense zone on January 28 near the Aleutian Islands. Monday, it went over Alaska and into the Northwest Territories of Canada. It went back into U.S. territory over northern Idaho on Tuesday, giving people a chance to take pictures and videos of the event.

The balloon was then seen on Wednesday in Montana, which is home to Malmstrom Air Force Base and nuclear missile silos.

The Department of Defense said the shootdown was ordered by President Joe Biden on Wednesday, but it wasn’t done until the object was over the coast of South Carolina to make sure no Americans on the ground were hurt.

The spy plane was able to fly across the U.S. and over several military bases for a whole week before it was finally shot down on the weekend.

“Clearly this was an attempt by China to gather information, to defeat our command and control of our sensitive missile defense and nuclear weapon sites,” said the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, Rep. Mike Turner, R-Ohio, while speaking about the balloon on a Sunday news show. “And that certainly is an urgency that this administration does not recognize.”

China said that the balloon was used to study the weather. Republican lawmakers have pushed back, saying that the country is intentionally spying on sensitive military sites in the United States.

Credits: My News 4

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