The suspected Chinese spy balloon that was shot down by the U.S. this weekend was enormous — 200 feet tall or roughly four times the size of the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade Snoopy balloon, reports NBC News.
Gen. Glen VanHerck, commander of North American Aerospace Defense Command and U.S. Northern Command, noted that the Chinese airship “probably weighs in excess of a couple thousand pounds” and is about as tall as a 20-story building and as wide as a “regional jet,” reports the New York Post.
The Chinese balloon was discovered flying high in U.S. skies last week. After being tracked for a few days, the U.S. shot the balloon down with a missile over the South Carolina coast on Saturday, as reported by the Deseret News.
What was inside the suspected Chinese spy balloon?
The Chinese balloon was shot down over the ocean to protect civilians and property from the large amounts of debris and potentially hazardous material from the balloon.
“From a safety standpoint, picture yourself with large debris weighing hundreds if not thousands of pounds falling out of the sky,” VanHerck said, per the New York Post. “That’s really what we’re kind of talking about.”
VanHerck explained that the balloon had “glass off of (its) solar panels; potentially hazardous material, such as material that is required for batteries to operate in such an environment as this; and even the potential for explosives to detonate and destroy the balloon that could have been present,” per the New York Post.
VanHerck did not confirm if the balloon had explosives inside.
On Monday, divers went in the water with robotic equipment to collect debris from the balloon, per NBC News.
“We are still in the recovery of this device, and still trying to gain more intelligence about it,” White House National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby told reporters, per NBC News.
Have there been other Chinese balloons?
According to Time magazine, there have been at least four other reported instances of suspected surveillance balloons being spotted in the U.S. There were several previous sightings in recent years, reported U.S. officials.
Colombian military spotted a similar balloon on Feb. 4 and Costa Rica reported seeing one in its airspace on Feb. 2, per Time.