The US Department of Defense confirmed Friday that authorities had successful completed a search operation and collected the remaining fragments of the downed Chinese balloon that stole headlines for days.
The Pentagon said in an official statement that the operation was conducted off the coast of South Carolina, and was successfully completed on 16 February. The operation was further aided by the US Navy's Northern Command assets.
The Friday release also indicated the collected balloon fragments were transferred by the US military to the FBI research laboratory. Additionally, all previously imposed restrictions on flights and navigation were lifted.
Also Friday, the US called off its search for two of the three unidentified flying objects due to inclement weather in remote areas of Alaska and Michigan's Lake Huron. The search for the third object remains ongoing, and is being carried out by Canadian officials.
The search call-off came hours after John Kirby, spokesperson for the National Security Council admitted during the Friday briefing that it was possible the objects would never be recovered by officials.
The balloon-turned-flying-object craze began in early February, when the United States detected an alleged Chinese surveillance balloon over the state of Montana, a development that carried headlines for days before the US opted to down the device off the coast of South Carolina.
The downing was ordered despite Beijing's repeated remarks that the balloon was a civilian airship engaged in scientific research, and which had blown off course. China had early on in the discovery expressed regret over its unintended entry into US airspace. Not long after the shootdown, the Chinese Foreign Ministry expressed protest over Washington's actions.
In light of the early February downing of the Chinese balloon and the subsequent downings of three additional "objects," critics have suggested the incidents were used as a distraction from emerging discoveries, such as the bombshell Nord Stream report made by journalist Seymour Hersh.
More recently, Biden further stirred the distraction narrative when he informed the US public that none of the three additional 'objects' did not appear to be of a surveillance nature, and had no ties to the Chinese government, or any other country. Preliminary findings by the US have suggested the three 'objects' were being used for commercial or benign reasons.