The moment the Chinese spy balloon was shot down

Two US Air force U-2S “Dragon Lady” spy planes flew more than 8,000ft above the Chinese surveillance balloon throughout its transit across America. The Cold War U-2S aircraft which can fly above 70,000ft sent images and intelligence data about the balloon, providing the evidence that it was not an innocent meteorological platform blown off course, as Beijing has claimed. The American spy planes with high-resolution cameras were part of a package of air assets airborne throughout the drama after the Chinese balloon was first spotted by the North American Aerospace Defence Command (NORAD) based in a mountain bunker in Colorado. Apart from the two F-22 Raptor stealth fighter aircraft designated to shoot down the balloon, there were two back-up F-15Cs, a US Navy P-8A maritime surveillance aircraft and a KC-135 refuelling Stratotanker. So, with the two U-2s, the mission involved eight aircraft. The operation was controlled from the ground by NORAD’s eastern air defence sector (EADS) based in the city of Rome in the state of New York. The U-2s which first came into service in 1957 but still fly the US military’s most secret spying missions around the world, took off from Beale air force base in California. They used the call signs DRAGON01 and DRAGON99, according to the US defence website, The War Zone. The only US aircraft that can fly at such high altitudes, they maintained a presence well above the Chinese balloon which was flying at around 62,000ft. When the pilot of the leading F-22 declared “splash” on his radio, controllers at EADS knew that the balloon had been targeted and brought down. The conversation back and forth between the pilots of the various aircraft involved in the mission, was picked up by Ken Harrell, a military aviation radio monitor based in South Carolina and released on YouTube. The chatter shows that the ground controllers were adamant the shootdown had to take place off the Atlantic coast within the 12-mile territorial limit. “We are looking for you to count every single mile that the TOI [target of interest] gained offshore,” the EADS controllers, codenamed HUNTRESS, said at one point. When the moment for launching a single AIM-9X Sidewinder missile arrived, the pilot of the lead F-22, codenamed FRANK01, says: “Splash one. TOI.” HUNTRESS: “Copy. Splash.” EAGLE02 (the F-16C wingman): “That is a t-kill [target kill]. The balloon is completely destroyed.” Later EAGLE02 says: “The winds remain 50 to 70 knots out of the north. So my best guess is the debris field is going very, very, very slowly. I think you are going to find it about 15 miles or so east of our location by the time it hits the water.”