The Coast Guard advised mariners to immediately leave the area because of U.S. military operations 'that present a significant hazard.'
said on Saturday that he ordered U.S. officials to shoot down the suspected Chinese spy balloon earlier this week and that national security leaders decided the best time for the operation was when the it got over water.
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said in a statement that Biden approved the shootdown on Wednesday, saying it should be done "as soon as the mission could be accomplished without undue risk to American lives under the balloon’s path."Austin said that due to the size and altitude of the balloon , which was moving at about 60,000 feet in the air, the military had determined that taking it down over land would pose an undue risk to people on the ground.
Biden had been inclined to down the balloon over land when he was first briefed on it on Tuesday, but Pentagon officials advised against it, warning that the potential risk to people on the ground outweighed the assessment of potential Chinese intelligence gains.
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