US President Joe Biden considers it a success that US forces shot down an aircraft near the state of Alaska, according to his comment to reporters before meeting with his Brazilian counterpart Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, Trend reports citing TASS.
"It was a success," Biden said in response to questions on the subject. The US president did not provide any details.
A Pentagon spokesman said earlier that an F-22 fighter jet shot down an aircraft that was about 12 kilometers above Alaska. US authorities have no information about the origin and capabilities of the aircraft. The Americans decided that it was not manned and "posed a reasonable threat to the safety of civilian flight".
US Defense Department Press Secretary Patrick Ryder said on February 2 that US authorities had detected and were tracking a high-altitude "reconnaissance balloon" over the continental United States. It was shot down on February 4 by the US military off the coast of South Carolina within US airspace.
A Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson said it was "a civilian airship used for research, mainly meteorological purposes". According to the spokesperson, "affected by the Westerlies and with limited self-steering capability, the airship deviated far from its planned course". The Chinese Foreign Ministry expressed regret that force majeure resulted in the meteorological probe entering US airspace and expressed readiness to maintain contact with the US authorities to resolve the situation.