From Forbes: The Chinese spy balloon that was eventually shot down over the Atlantic Ocean on Feb. 4 after sailing over the continental U.S. was apparently blown off course and had a “self-destruct function” that wasn’t activated before reaching Alaska, according to a new report from the New York Times. It’s not immediately clear what would have allowed the balloon to self-destruct or whether that capability would’ve posed a danger to anyone on the ground if it was done over U.S. airspace.
The balloon, one of four objects shot down over the U.S. and Canada in the past two weeks, was deployed by China to spy on Hawaii and the territory of Guam, according to senior defense officials who spoke to the Times. But it’s believed the spy balloon was blown off course over the Pacific Ocean, sending it up to Alaska before crossing into Canada and then down through Montana, where it was first spotted by civilians over Billings.
“It took almost three days after the public crisis over the balloon erupted for Chinese officials to tell U.S. counterparts that the controllers of the balloon were trying to speed it out of American airspace, an apparent effort to defuse tensions that baffled Biden administration officials and demonstrated how badly Beijing had misread the United States,” the report from the Times explains.
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