Suspected Chinese spy balloon moving eastward over US, local expert weighs in
Should we be concerned about the Chinese surveillance balloon?
China was originally spying on the U.S. but now it's also spying on Latin America, where a second spy balloon has been spotted. It's apparently the size of two or three school buses so shooting it out of the sky isn't safe. FOX 26's Randy Wallace reports more on what should we do about it and if anything can be done at all.
HOUSTON - As far as The Pentagon is concerned this is a Chinese Surveillance balloon and it's violating U.S. airspace and international law.
While satellites are ok, balloons are not. Experts say this is basically a spy plane.
"Whether they're collecting anything really significant would be an open question," said Richard Sindelar, Director of International studies at the University of Saint Thomas. "They're obviously surveilling strategic nuclear facilities."
SUGGESTED: 2nd Chinese balloon detected over Latin America, Pentagon says
Sindelar bases the balloon's path going over Montana, the Dakota's, and Nebraska.
"My question is how much is it adding to what they can collect from a satellite further up," he said. "It may be adding some detail but I don't know whether it's that significant of a difference since satellites are so sophisticated these days."
Everyone seems to agree the balloon is unusual.
The one big step Washington has taken was to postpone U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken's upcoming trip to China.
The balloon won't be making its way over the Lone Star State, but it will float out to the east coast.
Trying to catch it to see exactly what's going on inside the balloon doesn't seem to be possible.
With it being 60,000 feet in the sky and possibly the size of two tothree school buses shooting it down is too dangerous.
"I'm a little surprised they didn't try to shoot it down when it was over Montana which has a lot of open space," Sindelar said. "Now that it's in the Midwest we probably need to let it go because of the danger of something falling out of the sky."