UFO Decoder

Cases / Disclosure era

The Chinese surveillance balloon over North America

28 January to 4 February 2023 (shot down 4 February) Alaska, western Canada and the continental US; shot down off Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, United States Thousands of members of the public across several states; NORAD and US military trackers…
Identified
Official verdictUS government: Chinese high-altitude surveillance balloon (PRC claims civilian meteorological airship)

What happened

In late January 2023 a white high-altitude balloon carrying a large solar-paneled payload drifted from Alaska across western Canada and into the continental United States. On 1 February Billings, Montana, resident Chase Doak photographed it, and the image spread rapidly, forcing official acknowledgment. US officials called it a Chinese surveillance balloon; Beijing insisted it was a civilian weather airship blown off course. Military figures estimated the envelope at about 200 feet tall and the payload at over 2,000 pounds. It passed near sensitive sites before an F-22 shot it down off Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, on 4 February. Navy divers and the Coast Guard recovered debris, including electronics and optics, from shallow water and sent it to the FBI laboratory at Quantico. Secretary of State Antony Blinken postponed a trip to Beijing. Officials later said the balloon had been tracked since launch from Hainan, likely blew off a course toward Guam and Hawaii, and did not appear to transmit intelligence while over the US.

The Chinese high-altitude balloon photographed over Billings, Montana, on 1 February 2023.
The Chinese high-altitude balloon photographed over Billings, Montana, on 1 February 2023. Chase Doak, CC BY-SA 4.0.

The official explanation

This case is solved by any reasonable standard. US officials, backed by recovered debris, identified the object as a People's Republic of China surveillance balloon carrying antennas and other equipment able to geolocate communications; similar balloons had overflown more than 40 countries. China called it a civil research airship that strayed. Later US reporting said its sensors were not activated over the continental US and that it used a commercial internet provider mainly for navigation.

The anomalous case

The balloon was not a UFO in the alien sense, but it matters to the UAP story because it exposed how much the US had been missing. NORAD commander General Glen VanHerck called the failure to detect such incursions a domain awareness gap, and officials acknowledged that earlier Chinese balloon passes over US territory had gone unrecognized at the time. Some pre-2023 incursions remain classified as unidentified aerial phenomena. If a 200-foot balloon could cross the country before the public photographed it, critics argue, smaller, faster or stranger objects could easily have slipped through radar filters for years, which is precisely what UAP witnesses had been claiming. The episode also triggered radar changes that led directly to three more shoot-downs within a week.

The strongest argument that this was something genuinely unknown or classified, with each claim attributed to the person who made it.

Navy Explosive Ordnance Disposal Group 2 sailors prepare to recover the balloon off Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, February 2023.
Navy Explosive Ordnance Disposal Group 2 sailors prepare to recover the balloon off Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, February 2023. U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 1st Class Tyler Thompson, Public domain.

Documents

Sources

  1. Military finishes recovering Chinese balloon debris Associated Press (via WSLS)
  2. U.S. general cautions recovery of objects over Lake Huron, Alaska, Yukon 'going to take some time' CBC News
  3. 2023 Chinese balloon incident Wikipedia

Witness reports elsewhere

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