US Navy divers are working to recover the wreckage of a Chinese surveillance balloon that was shot down off the coast of South Carolina.
The former top US military officer said he expected it to happen relatively quickly so experts could begin analyzing the device.
Fighter jets downed the plane in US territorial waters on Saturday and wreckage is spread over a wide area.
The US believes that the balloon was monitoring sensitive military locations.
His discovery sparked a diplomatic crisis, with US Secretary of State Anthony Blanken immediately canceling a trip to China later that week.
Chinese officials denied it was used for espionage and insisted it was a weather craft that had been misguided.
Admiral Mike Mullen, the former chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, said on Sunday that he believed the Chinese military had deliberately launched the balloon to disrupt Mr Blanken’s visit to China. His visit will be the first such high-level meeting between the US and China in many years.
Adam Mullen dismissed China’s suggestion that it might have been maneuverable, saying it was “manoeuvrable because it’s got propellers on it”.
“It was not an accident. It was deliberate. It was intelligence,” he added.
Republican politician. Meanwhile, US President Joe Biden has been accused of dereliction of duty for allowing the balloon to pass through the country unimpeded.
Senate Intelligence Committee Vice Chairman Marco Rubio told CNN it was a “brazen attempt” by China to embarrass the president ahead of his State of the Union address.
Brenda Bethune, the mayor of Myrtle Beach, which is near where the object was shot, said: “I am concerned that the federal government is allowing a foreign adversary from Montana to our doorstep unhindered. How can it be allowed to fly.”
He said he hopes the government will explain how it happened and how they will prevent it from happening again.
The high-altitude balloon – about the size of three buses – was shot out of the sky by a Sidewinder air-to-air missile fired from an F-22 jet fighter. It made landfall about six nautical miles off the US coast at 14:39 EST (19:39 GMT) on Saturday.
American TV networks broadcast the moment the missile hit, with a small explosion followed by the giant white object falling into the sea.
Martin Willis said he was visiting Myrtle Beach when he filmed a fighter jet shooting down a suspected surveillance balloon.
He told the JEE News he couldn’t believe what he was seeing. “It was really exciting. It felt very historic,” he said.
Police have warned people in the area not to touch or move the debris. The Horry County Police Department said the tampering could interfere with the investigation.
The remains of the object landed in 47 feet (14 meters) of water — less than officials expected — and stretched over seven miles (11 kilometers).
Explaining the decision to shoot down the balloon, a U.S. defense official said in a statement, “While we took all necessary measures to protect against PRC [China] surveillance balloon collection of sensitive information; , surveillance balloons were flown over American soil. The value of intelligence to us.”
China’s foreign ministry expressed “deep dissatisfaction and protest over the US’s use of force to attack civilian drones”.
In a written statement, the Chinese government said it would “fully protect” the rights and interests of the company operating the balloon and that it reserved the right “to respond further if necessary.”
Mr. Biden first approved the plan to bring down the balloon on Wednesday, but decided to wait until the object was above water so as not to endanger people on the ground.
The US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) briefly suspended all civilian flights at three airports around the South Carolina coast and advised mariners to leave the area.
The incident has strained relations between China and the US, with the Pentagon calling it an “unacceptable violation” of its sovereignty.
A second Chinese spy balloon has been spotted over Latin America, US military officials said on Friday. The same day, Colombia’s air force said an identified object – believed to be a balloon – had been detected at 55,000 feet in the country’s airspace on February 3.
It says it followed the object until it exited the airspace, adding that it did not represent a threat to national security.
China has not publicly commented on the second balloon.
