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Balloon over the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of South Carolina
Photo: Chad Fish / dpa
According to a media report, the US military has been following the route of the downed Chinese balloon since its launch.
The balloon had been observed for a good week before it entered US airspace at the end of January, the Washington Post reported on Wednesday (local time), citing several US officials who wished to remain anonymous.
The balloon started from its home base on the southern Chinese island of Hainan.
He initially took a trajectory that appeared to take him over the US territory of Guam, where several US military bases are located, it said.
But then he unexpectedly took a northerly course.
The balloon later hovered over Alaska's Aleutian Islands and then drifted over Canada, from where it appeared to have been blown towards the mainland United States by strong winds.
According to the report, analysts are now investigating the possibility that China did not want to intentionally invade the American heartland with its "surveillance device".
A US fighter jet shot down the balloon on February 4 off the coast of South Carolina.
China had rejected the US espionage allegations and spoke of a research balloon that was thrown off course by "force majeure".
The ballooning incident further worsened the already tense relationship between the United States and China.
The US military has been taking more objects from the sky since Friday.
One was shot down over Alaska, one over Canada, and one over Lake Huron, which is part of the Great Lakes in the northern United States bordering Canada.
The Drive site has since published an unconfirmed audio recording from the plane.
This is said to be the conversation between the pilots who shot down the flying object over Lake Huron.
According to the report, they are talking about a black, shiny object with strings that is floating through American airspace.
"I wouldn't really call it a balloon," the report quotes one of the pilots as saying.
“There's some kind of object that's bloated.
It's hard to say, it's quite small."
ani/dpa
