High altitude selfie, please? US pilot captures China spy balloon at 60,000 feet

The Pentagon released a selfie photograph taken by the pilot of a U2 spy plane that was tracking the Chinese spy balloon before the US military shot it down off the coast of South Carolina earlier this month.

The photograph shows the mysterious, silvery-white sphere of the balloon with panels dangling. It also reveals a striking sight of the shadow of the US aircraft cast against the balloon.

The picture was taken by the airman on the flight deck on February 3 as the balloon entered the airspace above the continental US at high altitude, CNN reported.

The spy balloon was spotted above Montana and tracked by US authorities as it moved across the several states and then was shot down over the Atlantic Ocean with a single missile fired from an F-22 Raptor fighter jet that took off from Langley air force base in Virginia.

The F-22 Raptor warplane, flying at about 60,000 feet, shot it down off the South Carolina coast following which US president Joe Biden said that the aircraft had been “gathering information over America,” while China asserted that it was a weather balloon that went adrift.

The wreckage was retrieved and is being analyzed, it was reported.