The Chinese spy balloon incident was a 2023 controversy over a high-altitude balloon that crossed U.S. airspace and was widely labeled in media coverage as a “Chinese spy balloon.” John Kiriakou says no U.S. government official ever officially confirmed the balloon was engaged in espionage — the label came entirely from media outlets — and that he personally believes it was likely a weather balloon, since the U.S. already has satellite surveillance sophisticated enough to read license plates on individual cars, making balloon-based spying unnecessary.[1]
The NASA weather balloon anecdote
Kiriakou illustrates the ordinariness of high-altitude balloon sightings with an anecdote from a commercial flight from Washington, D.C. to Los Angeles. Flying over Arizona at 30,000 feet, the pilot announced a weather balloon at 150,000 feet and banked the plane so passengers could see it — an enormous, silver object the pilot identified as one of NASA’s weather balloons, adding that in 25 years of flying it was the first one he had personally seen.[2]