The Pentagon on Wednesday released a close-up image taken by a U-2 pilot flying high above the Chinese spy balloon before the U.S. Air Force shot it down off the South Carolina coast.
The photo shows the top of the pilot’s helmet inside the U-2 cockpit as the balloon flew below.
According to the caption provided by the U.S. Defense Department it was taken on February 3 as the large white orb “hovered over the Central Continental United States.”
The public release of the photo comes more than two weeks after the balloon made international headlines as it crossed the U.S. mainland.
That balloon was brought down on February 4 by an F-22 fighter jet firing a AIM-9X Sidewinder missile, as Breitbart News reported.
Watch as the Chinese spy balloon is shot down by the U.S. Air Force:
The U-2 reconnaissance aircraft, designed in the 1950s to snoop on the Soviet Union at high-altitude, can fly above 60,000 feet, the reported level of the Chinese balloon as it traversed the country.
The strike took place once the balloon was no longer over land but was still within sovereign U.S. territorial waters.
Its payload has since been recovered from the ocean floor and is being analysed by the FBI, Pentagon spokeswoman Sabrina Singh confirmed Wednesday.
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