Timeline of Events, From Sighting to Shoot Down
(Chase Doak photo)
by Michael J. Marino
The President of the United States was aware of the Chinese spy balloon for several days prior to Billings media spotting it traversing the sky in Montana. The Associated Press (AP) reports the White House did not notify the public about the balloon because they feared it “would sabotage Secretary of State Anthony Blinken’s planned diplomatic trip to China.”
Wednesday, 2/1
*The secrecy around the balloon was lifted when, “on Wednesday, Feb. 1, Billings Gazette photographer Larry Mayer, responding to vague reports that the airspace around Billings had been closed, photographed an odd glowing orb high in the sky,” the newspaper reported.
*Mayer reportedly tried to get in contact with several different officials at the local, state, and federal levels but these attempts went nowhere. So, he told one official on Thursday, “I’m publishing this in half an hour,” and a short time later that day, the U.S. Department of Defense issued a “Statement on the High-Altitude Surveillance Balloon.”
*Billings Logan International Airport (BIL) released a brief statement that a Ground Stop was issued from Helena to Billings, halting all flight activity for about two hours, from 1:30 to 3:30 p.m. The airport advised a total of three flights experienced delays, with two being diverted. The release also said that Billings officials had learned of an “object in the sky” suspected to be “a spy balloon from China” over Billings but said “we do not have any comment on the balloon, or comment on photos/videos captured over Billings.”
Thursday, 2/2
*Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder, of the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD), confirmed late Thursday evening the object was, in fact, a “high-altitude surveillance balloon,” and that officials continued to “track and monitor it closely.” Gen. Ryder also assured the balloon was flying at an altitude which did not “present a military or physical threat to people on the ground.”
“Once the balloon was detected, the U.S. government acted immediately to protect against the collection of sensitive information,” said Ryder.
A senior defense official said it was their “strong recommendation not to take kinetic action due to the risk to safety and security of people on the ground from the possible debris field.”
Apparently, these types of balloons have been observed in the U.S. on previous occasions “over the past several years,” officials noted.
Friday, 2/3
*Governor Greg Gianforte sent a letter to U.S. Secretary of Defense, Lloyd Austin, to “demand answers on the Chinese Communist Party’s spy balloon which has infiltrated United States airspace, flown over the State of Montana, and continues to traverse our airspace.”
The Governor wrote of concerns about “disruptions to civilian aircraft in Montana, America’s national security assets in Montana,” and said he shared all Montanans’ concern with “the lack of forthcoming information” from the DoD.
He also assured Montana’s National Guard “remains ready to assist with operations to defend our country…” The Governor’s full letter to Secretary Austin is available at: www.governor.mt.gov/Newsroom.
*Meanwhile, the Chinese government responded by insisting the balloon was a “runaway weather balloon” that was “blown off course due to lack of self-steering capacity.”
Saturday, 2/4 to Present
* “The [spy] balloon, which was being used by the People’s Republic of China (PRC) in an attempt to surveil strategic sites in the continental United States, was brought down above U.S. territorial waters,” Defense Secretary Austin announced Saturday, Feb. 4. He added the president “ordered the action on Wednesday,” but said the delay was to “ensure Americans on the ground were not harmed.”
Though the Department insists the balloon “did not pose a military or physical threat,” the announcement said its “intrusion” was still an “unacceptable violation of U.S. sovereignty.”
Austin also thanked the Canadian government for their “coordination and support” with tracking and analyzing the balloon.
*The Chinese government harshly criticized the U.S., calling Saturday’s action “an obvious overreaction and a serious violation of international practice,” and reserving the “right to take further action,” the AP reported. China also continued to insist the spy balloon was an “unmanned, civilian research aircraft.”
*Many U.S. officials have criticized the executive branch’s handling of the situation.
Mississippi Sen. Roger Wicker (R) said, “Allowing a spy balloon from the Communist Party of China to travel across the entire continental United States before contesting its presence is a disastrous projection of weakness by the White House.”
Said U.S. Senator Jon Tester (D-Montana), “China’s actions are a clear threat to those values and to America’s national security, and I’m demanding answers from the Biden Administration. I will be pulling people before my committee to get real answers on how this happened, and how we can prevent it from ever happening again.”
Gov. Gianforte said he is “deeply troubled by the constant stream of alarming developments for our national security.”
