2/4/23
Multiple clips purporting to show the destruction of the Chinese spy balloon have surfaced on social media, with some garnering millions of views in a matter of hours.
The strange craft was first spotted over Billings, Montana, on Wednesday, eventually being identified as a surveillance balloon owned by China. Despite initial outcry over its presence in U.S. airspace, the Pentagon and the White House declined to shoot it down immediately due to the potential threat of debris falling from the sky.
On Saturday afternoon, however, reports emerged that President Joe Biden was working on a plan to down the balloon once it was over water. These plans were seemingly confirmed, as the Associated Press confirmed that the craft had been taken down by an F-22 fighter jet around 2:40 p.m. ET, six nautical miles off the coast of Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.
As the news began to spread, multiple clips surfaced on Twitter showing the moment that the balloon was shot out of the sky. One clip, shared to Twitter by photographer Michael Steinberg, came from a live news broadcast and showed the precise moment the balloon exploded in the sky near Myrtle Beach. As of Saturday evening, it has been viewed nearly 2.5 million times.
Moment the #ChineseSpyBalloon was shot down. #Balloon pic.twitter.com/H9skbByLUs
— Michael Steinberg (@MichaelWX18) February 4, 2023
Another video, shot by Twitter user Devon Pace, captured the moment of impact from ground as well as the trail of the fighter jet that carried out the attack. Shortly after the destruction, the sound of shockwave can seemingly be heard. Around three hours after it was initially posted, the video was viewed over 1.4 million times.
Chinese spy balloon shot down. #ChineseSpyBalloon pic.twitter.com/2LNUUf0Qpr
— Devon Pace (@elitedevon) February 4, 2023
Another clip, shared by former media executive Mike Sington, featured the sounds of onlookers cheering the balloon’s destruction, with one person audibly shouting, “They got the balloon!” The clip has so far garnered over 200,000 views.
“They got the balloon!” Chinese spy balloon shot down just off the east coast, over US territorial waters. Mission accomplished. pic.twitter.com/5ND7kt4HPL
— Mike Sington (@MikeSington) February 4, 2023
Efforts to recover the balloon’s debris began shortly after it was shot down. While an official timetable estimate has not been given, recovery is expected to be quick as the balloon was shot down over water that is only around 47 feet deep.
Speaking to reporters following the successful takedown, Biden said that he first ordered the balloon to be shot down when it was spotted on Wednesday. His advisors ultimately decided to wait until it was over the ocean due to safety concerns.
“I ordered the Pentagon to shoot it down on Wednesday as soon as possible,” Biden said. “They decided—without doing damage to anyone on the ground—they decided that the best time to do that was when it got over water,” he said. “Within the 12 mile limit, they successfully took it down, and I want to compliment our aviators who did it.”
Newsweek reached out to the Department of Defense for comment.
“The strange craft was first spotted over Billings, Montana, on Wednesday, eventually being identified as a surveillance balloon owned by China.”
To me, that’s downright scary.
This balloon first made landfall over Alaska. It lazily floated over this vast state for who knows how long before crossing over western Canada. Undetected, mind you. What was NORAD doing all this time? We then let it keep on floating, all the way to the Atlantic. What else is currently or had been flying or floating above us undetected?
I’m sorry having to say this, but this is a piss poor performance on our part, militarily and politically speaking.
You know that saying that when you have eaten a Chinese dinner, you immediately want to eat another?
Same with chicom spy balloons : you blow up one, then you immediately want to blow up another!
Luckily, I never eat in Chines restaurants. It makes me suspicious that they don’t have rat problems and cockroaches are also scarce … if you know what I mean.
My experience in Hong Kong during the British mandate taught me that if you give Chinese people freedom, democracy, freedom to practice Christianity, free market capitalism and freedom of thought, they tend to behave pretty much like us.
Dining in HK was a gourmet experience : restaurants were clean, inspected regularly and the owners were serious business people competing in a dynamic market.
If on the other hand you crossed over the water to Kowloon, as I and my friends did (note: I was very young, naive and afraid of nothing in those days), you encountered filth, negativity and a fair amount of hostility.
I expect that HK under chicom rule is now a total shithole. Especially since they reneged on the agreements with the UK to maintain democracy.
That’s why I feel sorry for the Taiwan people now under threat from the Orwellian nightmare.
But first, somehow, some way, decency must prevail and and the stinking cauldron of devilry must be totally crushed in Ukraine.
Taiwan can count its lucky stars that they have a body of water between them and the giant bat virus shithole.