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President Biden is speaking Thursday about his administration’s response to the recent spate of unidentified flying objects, even while the administration continues to work on identifying the nature and origin of multiple objects the Pentagon has shot down over North American airspace.
One object, shot down off the coast of South Carolina, was determined to be a Chinese spy balloon, part of what the Biden administration says is part of a larger surveillance operation. The administration is still searching for other objects shot down over U.S. and Canadian airspace this month.
Pentagon officials said the Navy is expected to wrap up the search for remnants of the Chinese spy balloon off the coast of South Carolina on Thursday. Parts of the balloon and its payload, including a 30- to 40-foot antenna array, have been recovered, the officials said.
U.S. intelligence officials were tracking the spy balloon since it lifted off from the south coast of China, U.S. officials said Tuesday. After takeoff, the spy balloon drifted east in the direction of Guam and Hawaii and then went north to Alaska and entered U.S. airspace on Jan. 28, according to those officials. Given the path, it’s possible that the balloon was blown off course by weather, but U.S. officials said that once it crossed south over the continental United States, it was under China’s control.
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The White House announced earlier this week it is putting together an interagency team to study the “unidentified aerial phenomena” and figure out how to handle them. The White House has said that the objects aren’t indications of alien or extraterrestrial activity.
The Biden administration has been briefing members of Congress on the UFOs, and members of both parties have demanded transparency and answers.
— David Martin contributed to this report
