US cancels search for balloon-like objects in Alaska’s Lake Huron

The statement released late Friday came hours after officials said the US had completed efforts to recover the remains of the large balloon that was shot down off the coast of South Carolina on February 4, and analysis of the debris so far supports that Conclusions that it was a Chinese spy balloon.

Officials said the US believes the Navy, Coast Guard and FBI personnel collected all of that balloon’s debris from the seabed, including key payload equipment that could reveal what information they were able to monitor and gather. White House National Security spokesman John Kirby said a significant amount of debris was recovered, including “electronics and optics” from the payload. He refused to say what the US has learned from the rubble so far.

The US Northern Command said in a statement that salvage operations ended Thursday and the final parts were on their way to the FBI lab in Virginia for analysis. Air and sea traffic restrictions off South Carolina were said to have been lifted.

Northern Command later said the decision to end the search for the objects shot down over Alaska and Lake Huron came after the US and Canada conducted “systematic searches of each area using a variety of avenues, including aerial photographs and – sensors, surface sensors and inspections, and underground scans, and no debris was found.” Northern Command said air and sea security borders were also lifted at those two locations.

The announcements capped three dramatic weeks in which US warplanes shot down four airborne objects — the large Chinese balloon on February 4 and three much smaller objects about a week later over Canada, Alaska and Lake Huron. These are the first known downings of unauthorized objects in peacetime in US airspace.

While the military is confident the balloon shot down off South Carolina was a Chinese-operated surveillance airship, the Biden administration has admitted the three smaller objects were likely civilian balloons targeted during the enhanced response , after US home defense radars were recalibrated to detect slower-moving airborne objects.

Much of the Chinese balloon fell in about 15 meters of water, and the navy was able to collect debris floating on the surface, and divers and unmanned naval vessels pulled the rest up from the seabed. The Northern Command said on Friday that all Navy and Coast Guard vessels had evacuated the area.

On Thursday, President Joe Biden directed National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan to lead an interagency team to set “tighter rules” for tracking, surveillance and potentially shooting down unknown airborne objects.

Meanwhile, key questions about the Chinese balloon remain unanswered, including what information it was able to gather while flying over sensitive military sites in the United States and whether it was able to send anything back to China.

The US tracked it several days after it left China, said a US official who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive information. It appears to have deviated from its original trajectory, which was headed toward the U.S. territory of Guam, and eventually flew over the continental U.S., the official said.

Balloons and other unidentified objects were previously sighted over Guam, a strategic US Navy/Air Force hub in the western Pacific.

It’s unclear how much control China retained over the balloon after it deviated from its original trajectory. A second US official said the balloon could have been maneuvered from the outside or directed to hover over a specific target, but it’s unclear if this was done by Chinese forces.

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Copp reported on board a US military aircraft.

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