One other Chinese spy balloon is currently making its way over Latin America, Pentagon officials said Friday night.
“We’re seeing reports of a balloon transiting Latin America. We now assess it’s one other Chinese surveillance balloon,” Pentagon spokesperson Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder said in a press release.
No additional information in regards to the balloon or its location was available, he said.
The report of a second balloon comes after Pentagon officials announced Thursday that a high-altitude balloon had been spotted flying over sensitive sites within the western US to gather information.
A senior Pentagon official said the US is “confident” that the aircraft is from China.
President Biden was reportedly briefed on the matter and asked for military options. Fighter jets — including F-22s — were prepared to shoot down the balloon, but Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin has up to now advised against it to forestall debris from potentially causing destruction and casualties on the bottom.
On Thursday the balloon was seen over 60,000 feet above Montana — home to one among America’s three nuclear missile silo fields at Malmstrom Air Force Base. The balloon continued to make its way east and on Friday it was spotted over Kansas City, Missouri.
“While we won’t get into specifics with regard to the precise location, I can inform you that the balloon continues to maneuver eastward and is currently over the middle of the continental United States,” Ryder said Friday, adding that the balloon will likely be over US airspace for “just a few days.”
Ryder described the balloon as “maneuverable,” noting that it “has modified its course, which is again why we’re monitoring it.” He said military officials will proceed to evaluate their “options,” without ruling out shooting it down eventually.
The Chinese Foreign Ministry on Friday denied that the balloon was for surveillance. As a substitute, it claimed the item was a civilian weather instrument that had drifted off track and denied that it had any “intention of violating the territory and airspace of any sovereign country.”
The controversy forced Secretary of State Antony Blinken to cancel his planned trip to China early next week.
Meanwhile, a viral video purporting to indicate what looks like an explosion over Billings, Montana Friday night prompted online speculation that a balloon had been shot out of the sky.
But authorities had not been capable of substantiate the content of the video or reach the Twitter user who posted it. City officials told KULR8 that there have been no reports of plane crashes or explosions in, around or across Montana. Law enforcement is working to confirm the legitimacy of the video.
