By MATTHEW BROWN and AMY BETH HANSON
Associated Press
BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) — The Chinese balloon drifting high above the U.S. and first revealed over Montana has created a buzz down below among residents who initially wondered what it was — and now wonder what its arrival means amid a chorus of alarm raised by the region’s elected officials.
The balloon roiled diplomatic tensions as it continued to move over the central U.S. on Friday at 60,000 feet (18,288 meters). Secretary of State Anthony Blinken abruptly canceled an upcoming trip to China.
Curiosity about the bobbling sky orb swept the internet, with search terms like “where is the sky balloon now?” and “spy balloon tracker” surging on Google. On Facebook, wobbly videos of blue skies and the white splotch filled speculative feeds as communities tried to track its path over the U.S.
In Montana — home to Malmstrom Air Force base and dozens of nuclear missile silos — people doubted Beijing’s claim that it was a weather balloon gone off course. And the governor and members of Congress pressed the Biden administration over why the military did not immediately bring it down from the sky.
“I question whether or not we would even found out about this if people hadn’t spotted it in Billings,” said Chase Doak, a resident of the southern Montana city who appears to have captured some of the first known video footage and photographs of the balloon.
“It needs to be removed from the sky somehow,” Doak added. “And if China is now taking responsibility, they need to answer for why it’s here in our airspace.”
A white balloon with what appeared to be a solar array hanging beneath it was seen over Billings Wednesday afternoon, around the same time the local airport was temporarily shut down and a day before the Pentagon revealed it was tracking a Chinese spy balloon over the state.
Initial speculation over its origins ranged from the foreign to the extra-terrestrial.
Todd Hewett of Billings said his 10-year-old son Matt saw the balloon and thought it was a comet he had been looking for. Hewett got some shaky footage, using a cellphone to take video through a telescope, and came away skeptical of the Chinese claim that it was a civilian weather balloon. He wanted the federal government to take action.
“Shoot it down,” he said. “If we could somehow pierce the bottom of it to allow some of the gas to escape to allow for a more controlled descent (that) would be nice .. but if we can’t do that … blow it up.”
Montana has some experience with balloons launched by adversaries: Japan in World War II targeted the western U.S. with incendiary “balloon bombs” that were floated over North America with plans to harm people and start forest fires. More than 30 of the bombs made of rice paper landed in Montana, according to the Montana Historical Society.
In Oregon, five children and a pregnant woman on a church picnic were killed in 1945 when they found one of the bombs and it exploded.
On Friday in Kansas City, Missouri, the National Weather Service said it received reports of a large balloon in the Kansas City metro area and posted two images of white orbs taken from the weather station office in Pleasant Hill, Missouri. The service confirmed it was not a National Weather Service balloon.
The Live Storm Chasers Facebook page included several posts from people who reported seeing a white orb that could be the balloon over Missouri at midday Friday.
Montana Rep. Ryan Zinke put out a poll to his constituents early Friday saying the balloon was still over the state and asking if should be shot down. When the Pentagon said the balloon had since drifted over the central U.S., Zinke remained unappeased and raised the possibility that China had more than one balloon over the U.S., during an interview with The Associated Press.
“I don’t know if that’s the only balloon. We’ve asked for those answers,” he said.
The former U.S. Navy SEAL said the balloon should have been shot down. “The message that it gives to our allies is, we’re not capable of dealing with a balloon,” he said.
Republicans in Montana have grown increasingly outspoken in recent years about China posing a threat to U.S. national security. A bill pending before the state Legislature would ban “foreign adversaries” from owning, leasing or renting critical infrastructure or farmland.
The bill did not name any countries but its sponsor, Republican state Sen. Ken Bogner of Miles City, singled out China as being interested in acquiring lands and resources in the U.S. to “help them with spying efforts.”
Bogner said Friday that the balloon over Billings was “yet another example” of China’s attempts to operate within the U.S.
That anti-China sentiment marks a shift from a just a few years ago, when Montana U.S. Sen. Steve Daines visited China, hosted the Chinese ambassador on a visit to a Montana ranch and helped secure a deal to export more beef to China.
The beef deal later fell through, and Daines has since emerged as a strong critic of China.
“This is not the first time a Chinese balloon has entered American airspace over sensitive national security areas,” Daines said in a Friday statement to the AP. “I don’t think anyone believes this was merely a civilian aircraft.”
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