US Reportedly Tracked Chinese Balloon for Nearly a Week Before It Entered US Airspace

Intelligence officials reportedly watched the suspected Chinese spy balloon from the moment it lifted off.

CBS News’ Norah O’Donnell reported on Tuesday night, “U.S. intelligence watched the high-flying airship as it lifted off near China’s south coast. That means the U.S. military had been tracking it for nearly a week before it entered U.S. airspace, longer than originally known.”

The network’s Nancy Cordes explained officials observed the massive balloon head toward Guam and Hawaii. However, she said, “It took a sharp northward turn, a beeline towards Alaska.”

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The Washington Post also reported U.S. officials tracked the balloon for roughly a week before it entered the country’s airspace.

“Intelligence analysts are unsure whether the apparent deviation was intentional or accidental, but are confident it was intended for surveillance, most likely over U.S. military installations in the Pacific,” the paper explained.

It added, “Either way the incursion into U.S. airspace was a major misstep by the , prompting a political and diplomatic furor and deeper scrutiny by the United States and its allies of Beijing’s aerial espionage capabilities.”

The Post said officials believe the balloon’s “hovering over sensitive nuclear sites in Montana was no accident, officials said, raising the possibility that even if the balloon were inadvertently blown over the U.S. mainland, Beijing apparently decided to seize the opportunity to try to gather intelligence.”

The new reports about the balloon come over a week after an F-22 shot it with a missile off the coast of South Carolina.