that is the east coast of the state, a few hours ago, they cleared that airport, grounded the planes, nothing coming in and nothing coming out. and the reason we now know was because they had a planned operation that balloon. let s remind you what this balloon looked like what we have been tracking for a few days. the white balloon. that s been. and then came down across the us. there have been attempts to shoot it down, not done because of the risk of falling debris. also, this seems to not be a huge security risk to the us, given what the balloon was and the fact that chinese satellites could get information just as well is this balloon. decision was taken to wait till it got over to the sea, where the risk to people was much less. they shut the air space and we now know they have just shut it down, according to a reuters photographer at the scene. joining me now is our north america correspondent, david willis. hi, david. this is happening just before he came on air. what
may wish to send spy balloons. we will shoot it down as soon as it s safe for us to do so and we won t hesitate, and we will in fact also retaliate against your country and other ways in which we will determine for ourselves. you will not enter our airspace. there will be punishment. this is. and that s the sort of messaging i hope the biden administration will engage in. and viscera string. we mentioned biden there. we could listen again now for him. just to recap. breaking news over the last few minutes. phone but wasn t big enough just to see with your eyes? a chinese spy balloon has been shut down by the us, they waited for it to get over the sea, they didn t want to wait while it was overland but it cleared south carolina, got over us waters, they took it down with a jet and a missile and they are now recovering that balloon from the sea. once we had confirmation that that had all happened, president biden gave a short interview to reporters, let s take a listen. i i
Getting home. we wish you the best of luck. , , getting home. we wish you the best of luck. . , , ,, , ., getting home. we wish you the best of luck. , , ,, y., ., of luck. all the best. see you on the other of luck. all the best. see you on the other side. of luck. all the best. see you on the other side. in of luck. all the best. see you on the other side. in and of luck. all the best. see you on the other side. in and if- of luck. all the best. see you on the other side. in and if you - of luck. all the best. see you on the other side. in and if you can| the other side. in and if you can elect daniel. the other side. in and if you can elect daniel, are the other side. in and if you can elect daniel, are affected - the other side. in and if you can elect daniel, are affected by - elect daniel, are affected by today s air traffic control problems, you can get a lot more information and helpful advice on what compensation you might be entitled to on the bbc news websites
That there airspace is now back open and they will be able to come and go. we will eventually take a look at that flight radar website. it is really useful to give an overview of what is happening. when the airspace is a bit fuller, we ll take a look at those pictures. but these have been and extraordinary couple of days. we haven t known exactly what threat level and why and how it managed to steer off course if it was accidental or deliberately into areas where it was always going to be seen by the us. it can almost be seen by the naked eye. these questions about why and what the strategic thinking was behind china s move or whether it was a mistake. those kinds of questions,
Student it down overland, wait for it to be over the sea, which is what has happened. the other strand of all this, the first time we got a says this was really, this operation was going to happen, the first we got a sense of it was when the faa come of the organisation in charge of the airspace across the whole of the us announced that they were shutting down a specific corner of us airspace, they got in touch with three airports, south carolina, on the coast there, and said no flights in, no flights out, we need that airspace for our militaryjets to come in and take down this spy balloon. so if you have been with us over the last couple of hours, we have been on the flight radar website which many viewers will know is absolutely invaluable, tells you where most of the aircraft on planet earth are at any one time, the yellow dots are where the airplay and sell in real time, that is the us there, the eastern coast of the us, and myrtle beach was one of the