Blown by the wind? The balloon, which was shot down off the South Carolina coast, was supposed to be scouting for US military installations in the Pacific, sources in Washington, DC say winds may have blown it off course.
New York/Washington, D. C. While the launches of new unmanned aerial vehicles by the US Air Force in the northern United States and the Canadian Yukon last weekend continue to raise questions, the mystery surrounding the Chinese balloon shot down on February 4 is slowly unraveling. Officials familiar with the matter said the balloon was probably originally intended for a spy mission in the Pacific before winds blew it off course.
The object – the size of a regional airliner and traveling in the middle stratosphere – drifted towards Alaska before flying south via Canada over the United States. Air Force pilots then shot down the object off the coast of Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, in the southern United States.