very difficult test for us. we need help. we need international community to do something to help us, to support us. this is a disaster area. we need help from everyone to save our people. remember him. there are many people like him searching for loved ones and others. good morning, everyone. there s a desperate plea for help after a catastrophic earthquake killed more than 1500 people in turkey and syria. keep an eye on him there are many like him. we re going to speak to that rescuer, one of syria s white helmets as he searches for survivors. emergency crews are x scrambling in ohio trying to keep a toxic train wreck from exploding. and the u.s. shot down a chinese balloon. there is crisis and blowback that president biden is now facing. all as he s preparing to give the second state of the union address tomorrow night. also this southwest. fedex is on the go. close call there. another near disaster at a u.s. airport. what we re learning about that very close c
hello, everyone. thank you for joining me this sunday. i m fredicka whitfield. a dramatic takedown and now a race to recover pieces of that suspected chinese supply balloon. the u.s. military shooting it out of the sky on saturday just off the coast of south carolina. you watched it with us live. president biden on wednesday ordering the balloon to be destroyed as soon as possible. his top military brass advising the president to wait until it was safely over the ocean. efforts are now under way to collect the fallen debris which will be taken to the fbi lab in quantico for analysis. the balloon had made its way across the country after first being spotted in montana on wednesday. its appearance over the u.s. and the military operation to take it down complicating the already tenuous relationship between the u.s. and china. beijing accusing the u.s. of overreacting and expressing strong dissatisfaction over the balloon s destruction. we have reporters around the world coverin
with the united states says with a chinese surveillance balloon, roughly six nautical miles off the coast of south carolina. well within u.s. territorial airspace. the balloon crashed into the atlantic ocean, creating a debris field at least seven mile spread out in relatively short shallow water. the recovery of that debris is ongoing, including navy divers, the coast guard, and other manned and unmanned salvage feedback vessels. the fbi counter intelligence agents are also on board the recovery vessels, officials say there are plenty to learn from that debris, but added that they have also been studying that balloon since it first entered u.s. airspace in the illusion islands of alaska, on january 28th. the balloon, which had maneuverability capabilities via small motors and multiple propellers entered canadian airspace on january 3rd, for troubled self crop crossing into the united states. president biden says he gave the order to shoot the balloon down on, wednesday but o
equipment not normally associated with civilian research like collection pod equipment and solar panels. the balloon was flying over sensitive areas. can you help us understand how this could be a weather balloon? translator: the airstrip is also civilian in nature. we made it clear this was an unexpected instance. but the u.s. side is deliberately hyping it up and attacking by force which is unacceptable and irresponsible. poppy, state media is using that line and blaming domestic politics for kaes escalating th. if it was deliberate, they re embarrassing for beijing. xi is on a charm offensive, trying to reset relations with countries badly damaged during the pandemic. and now this sets them back diplomatically making it harder for them to convince they can play by international rules. thank you for that reporting from beijing.
meteorological purposes. a weather balloon, in other words. which, deviated far from its plan course because of strong winds, which is a bit hard to believe given that montana, where the balloon was actually hovering for about a day is more than 6000 miles away from mainland china. it is also home to one of america s three nuclear missile silo fields, which operates and maintains intercontinental ballistic missiles. indeed, a senior official in a bomb, was monitoring several sites, including a collection pod and special solar panels. more damning, the u.s. has confirmed that another chinese surveillance balloon is right now traveling across central and south america and that both of these balloons are part of a chinese infrastructure surveillance fleet of balloons. this has been spotted over the past several years in multiple countries across five continents. this latest incident is much more than just a spy balloon, it is a metaphor for u.s. china relations, which are far of course,