(Bloomberg) — The US Air Force pilot glances back as a camera focuses on the white airship floating below — a Chinese balloon on a flight across the US that not only worsened already fraught Beijing-Washington relations but touched off a political firestorm for the Biden administration.
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The photo, taken Feb. 3 from the cockpit of a U-2 spy plane and released by the Defense Department on Wednesday, quickly blazed across social media platforms and the internet, labeled a high-altitude “selfie.”
A day later, the balloon would be observed by another Air Force pilot whose mission was not to take photographs, but to ready an AIM-9X Sidewinder missile to put an end to its flight.
The F-22 Raptor warplane, flying at about 58,000 feet, shot it down off the South Carolina coast.
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President Joe Biden said the aircraft had been “gathering information over America,” while Chinese officials asserted that it was a weather balloon that went adrift.
The US Navy ended its search for debris late last week.
