coast of myrtle beach, south carolina, collecting the wreckage of the downed balloon. republicans are condemning president biden for failing to take action on the balloon sooner. let s get the latest on the balloon and today s recovery efforts, zachary cohen is here. zachary, what more are we learning about this balloon and, i guess, at some point, they need to pull it up out of the ocean and start examining it. i think at this early stage, u.s. officials are not buying the chinese government s explanation that it was a civilian aircraft. they have strongly indicated, defense officials and administration officials, strongly told us that this was used for spying and they believe it was used to try to collect data about sensitive u.s. military sites across the country. now, that raises an being question, though, and one that the biden administration is going to have to grapple with in the next few days. they know that was the intent of this balloon, why did they not shoot it
be a tool to help us do a better job of taking care of the patient in front of us. yeah, i think it could work in my line of work as well. it could lend a hand here and there. i don t want folks to go overboard with. i still need a day job. dr. megan ranney, thanks so much. i appreciate it. thank you, jim. coming up, the size of three buses blown up by a missile off the coast of south carolina. now under way, the delicate mission to collect the pieces of the chinese spy balloon. a salvage expert joins me live to talk about that next. r busin. unlock new insights and efficiency, with leading ultra-c-capacity g coverage. t-mobibile for business has 5g that s ready right now.
reconnaissance over china. we do reconnaissance over china, operating from international air space. they ve never liked it. they ve always threatened our planes as a result of that. i really think they were trying to send a larger message about what we do to gather information on china. all right. leon panetta, thanks, again, for the time. we appreciate it. thanks, jim. coming up, how hard will it be to recover this balloon from the waters off the coast of south carolina? we ll ask a salvage expert about how tough an operation this could be. also, voters won t cast the first primary ballots for nearly a year, but new reporting shows why president biden might have his work cut out for him. concussions are on the rise in the nfl. is there any way to make thihis sport safer. you re live inin the cnn newsro.
darkness crash and then walking for help. according to investigators she was released this morning. she had non life threatening injures. i spoke to larry earlier today and when he saw her she was banged up. another heartbreaking part of the story she asked him to goth the hospital with her but because he is not a family member he couldn t go. he s calling her the bravest person he s ever met. amazing source of inspiration. thanks nick and of course we wish her a good recovery. yeah and over family members the best. thanks so much. overseas. waves as high as 15 feet. monsoon conditions. in a few minutes i ll talk with a salvage expert about how airasia are coverry teams work in this weather.
ground for aircraft careers and pilots. this dive bomber crashed although the pilot survived. salvage expert hopes to raise money to raise the plane and put it on display in chicago. you show one of these things to a 6-year-old the first time they see it their eyes light up. reporter: a successful mission finding the submerged plane. he still hopes to recover the plane before locating more sitting at the bottom of the great lakes. the one thing this team knows for certain, persistence and patience do eventually pay of. george howell is joining me now. george good to see you. how similar was this operation in lake michigan to what we re learning in the java sea? reporter: thank you. happy new year to you. you know what we re seeing here and in the java sea it s