Vernon college student witnesses spy balloon take down first hand

HARTFORD, Conn. (WFSB) - A US fighter jet shot down the suspected Chinese spy balloon off the coast of South Carolina after it was spotted in the region today.

Connecticut congressman Joe Courtney released a statement praising how the take down was executed.

“President Biden’s order to take down the PRC surveillance balloon was executed professionally and surgically by Air Force pilots from Northern Command over U.S. 12-mile territorial waters,” said Congressman Courtney. “The PRC committed a blatant violation of international law with this intrusion into U.S. airspace, and the President’s action was entirely justified. After our sea services conduct a retrieval of the platform, our forensic experts will go to work so the international community gets the full story of this unacceptable provocation.”

A college student from Vernon saw the spy balloon get taken down first hand.

Skylar Goold is a senior at Coastal Carolina in South Carolina.

She says she was in the car with friends when she noticed the balloon and the jets going towards it before it was shot down.

“There were 4 jets in the sky, then there were two jets in the stream heading straight for it and I thought it’d be another drive by. But you didn’t see a missile or anything,” said Skylar. “I heard a faint thud or a thump type of sound. It wasn’t a boom or explosion. I was expecting a big ball of fire or something like that.”

Skylar says it was a pretty cool experience to see everything happen.

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