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Ju Peng / Xinhua via Getty Images
A South American nation revealed late on Saturday that it detected a possible Chinese spy balloon operating in its airspace last week.
The Colombian Air Force said in a statement that on Friday morning, “the National Air Defense System detected an object above 55,000 feet, which entered Colombian airspace in the northern sector of the country, moving at an average speed of 25 knots, identifying in it, characteristics similar to those of a balloon.”
“Through the Defense Systems, the Colombian Air Force followed the object until it left the airspace,” the statement continued.
The Colombians said that they were launching an investigation to determine the origin of the object, although they did not believe that it presented a risk to their security.
The news out of Colombia comes after the Pentagon said Friday that it had assessed the balloon was a Chinese spy balloon.
“We are seeing reports of a balloon transiting Latin America,” Pentagon spokesperson Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder said. “We now assess it is another Chinese surveillance balloon.”
A balloon, potentially the same one discovered over the skies of Colombia, was filmed floating over Costa Rica.
Esteban Carranza, a lawyer from Costa Rica, posted a video of the balloon, writing, “the same type of balloon spotted in the US was visible all day in the Costa Rican sky.”
“I have to say, I was pretty excited as I initially thought I was seeing a UFO because the object was big, bright and absolutely still,” he told CNN. “I looked at the object for around 45 minutes from different locations, completely still, and a few hours later went back out again and it was still there, in the exact same place. Lots of people were looking at it from different parts of the city. Even though not a UFO, it was still very unusual and therefore an exciting experience.”
The news comes after the U.S. military used an F-22 Raptor to take out a Chinese spy balloon off the coast of South Carolina using a single air-to-air A9X sidewinder missile that was fired at an altitude of approximately 58,000 feet. The decision to shoot down the spy balloon came after President Joe Biden allowed it to fly thousands of miles over the continental U.S. during the last several days.
https://www.dailywire.com/news/south-american-nation-detects-another-possible-chinese-spy-balloon
FEBRUARY 6, 202312:21 AMUPDATED 17 HOURS AGO
REFILE-Colombian
military confirmed possible balloon flying over its airspace
By Reuters Staff
2 MIN READ
(Repeats
to fix typo in paragraph 5)
Feb
5 (Reuters) - A day before a U.S. military jet shot down a suspected Chinese
spy balloon off the country’s Atlantic Coast on Saturday, Colombia’s military
confirmed a sighting of an airborne object similar to a balloon flying over its
territory.
Colombia’s
air force issued a statement on Saturday providing limited details concerning a
possible balloon its air defense system had located Friday morning.
U.S.
military officials on Friday said another Chinese balloon was spotted somewhere
over Latin America but did not specify its location.
According
to the Colombian air force statement, an “object” was detected over its
territory at an altitude of 55,000 feet that had entered the South American
country’s airspace to the north moving at an average speed of 25 knots, or
roughly 29 miles per hour.
The
statement added that the object exhibited “characteristics similar to those of
a balloon,” and that the air force monitored it until it left the country’s
airspace.
“It
was determined that it did not represent a threat to national security,” the
statement added.
No
other official confirmation of unidentified balloons flying over other Latin
American countries has been issued as of Sunday.
In
recent days, however, balloon sightings have been made in Venezuela and Costa
Rica by multiple social media users.
The
saga of the downed Chinese spy balloon off the U.S. coast captivated public
attention for days, and was widely seen as worsening U.S.-Chinese relations.
(Reporting by Diego Ore and David Alire Garcia; Editing by Mark Porter)
Our
Standards: The
Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
https://www.reuters.com/article/usa-china-latin-america/refile-colombian-military-confirmed-possible-balloon-flying-over-its-airspace-idUKL1N34L0B6
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