Pilot says spy balloon “completely destroyed” in cockpit audio as US secures perimeter to prevent China from recovering it

THE US military has secured an area around the alleged Chinese spy balloon after it was “completely destroyed,” a tone from a fighter jet pilot reveals.

The recording emerged Sunday from one of the two military jets sent to “take care of,” as President Joe Biden put it, the Chinese airship.

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An F-22 Raptor fighter jet shot down the balloon with a single missile around 2:39 p.m. Saturday off the coast of Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.

The cockpit audio showed the moment the pilots confirmed the hit on the Chinese airship.

“The balloon is completely destroyed,” the pilot told the Eastern Air Defense Sector.

The debris fell into the Atlantic and has drifted to a field about seven miles wide, a senior military adviser told Fox News.

The Navy and Coast Guard have secured the perimeter and have begun searching for any debris to ensure there is no Chinese interference.

It is not known when the balloon will be recovered, as the Navy’s recovery ship will not arrive for a few days, according to the military adviser.

A third surveillance balloon may be near the United States, but officials have not released its exact location.

An anonymous source told the Washington Post that the third balloon is likely near landmarks for China.

A second balloon was spotted over Latin America on Friday.

A suspected Chinese spy balloon crashed into the Pacific off the coast of Hawaii four months ago, US officials said Fox News.

It was also revealed that an alleged Chinese spy balloon flew over Texas and Florida while former President Donald Trump was still in office.

BALLOON ‘BROKEN DOWN’

After the Chinese airship was sighted along the east coast this week, including in Montana and North Carolina, the US military brought it down in US territorial waters.

US Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III confirmed this Washington Post that a U.S. fighter jet assigned to U.S. Northern Command “successfully shot down the high-altitude surveillance balloon.”

Austin said the balloon “was used by the PRC [People’s Republic of China] in an attempt to survey strategic locations in the continental United States.”

However, China claims the airship was only collecting weather data and went off course.

The Chinese government called the balloon attack “a clear overreaction and a serious breach of international practice.”

The government said it “reserves the right to provide further answers if necessary”.

It’s unclear what is meant by “further responses needed,” but fears of future conflict remain and are heightened by the launch of the Chinese balloon.

A US official told the Washington Post that Beijing “freaked out” over the destruction of the airship.

“You are in a very difficult place.” said the source. “And they have very few cards to play at the moment.”