China’s Spy Balloon

On 1st February, the people of America observed a white balloon-like aircraft floating over Montana. Suddenly, rumors of a Chinese spy balloon spread throughout the country and caught worldwide military attention. Within less time, it became the world’s most tracked aircraft by a famous aircraft-tracking website, FlightRadar24.

After inquiry, FlightRadar24 rejected all the false rumors, named it HBAL617, and stated that it’s just a standard high-altitude research tool under the United States of America’s control. This research aircraft became the most tracked on the site by 4,000 individuals.

On 3rd February, Chinese officials confirmed that it was their aircraft, but it was a typical civilian research aircraft despite a spying device. But the US Department of Defense Pentagon officials claimed it to be a spying balloon.

After this happened, some Twitter users asked FlightRadar24 if they would track the alleged China spy balloon. FlightRadar24 responds to all tweets we don’t think so; a spy balloon will reveal its location, speed, and other activities using ADS-B.

US officials pressured authorities to destroy this spy balloon, but they replied it was not simple to shoot this Chinese balloon as our jets are not designed to target balloons. Over 25 years ago, Canada Air Force two fighter jets fired about 1,000 rounds but failed to bring a weather balloon down.