Weren't these balloons at the altitude level that civilian aircraft fly? How exactly is it legal to do what these guys claim to have been doing? This is bizarre stuff.
This guy should be thankful he's not in prison yet, even though he should be.
> This guy should be thankful he's not in prison yet, even though he should be.
That's awfully nasty and blood thirsty. Thousands of weather balloons are launched very day, they are usually even more massive. These balloons are within the parameters that are explicitly permitted and are believed to be safe by the FAA.
Not everything unfamiliar to you personally is a threat.
Not everyone who does something which you haven't personally deemed safe deserves to be locked in a cage.
I expect they were operating their balloons within the lawful parameters set by the FAA. I also expect those parameters might soon change now that spy balloons are a thing.
That guy's hobby needs a talented spokesperson right now, and he definitely is not it.
60.000 feet is double the maximum ceiling of any current airliner. So no. most airliners do 35k or so max. Concorde went a lot higher but didn't reach 60k either (it also cruised much higher meaning it had basically the whole airspace to itself)
Of course the balloons must transition but it goes quite fast.
But the recently shot down objects were at 20,000 feet, 40,000 feet, and 40,000 feet, right? Part of the justification for shooting them down was their proximity to commercial aviation…
The 3 Balloons which were shot down after the known Chinese one were all flying between 20,000 - 40,000 ft. In truth it's kind of insane to me that drones seem to have greater FAA regulation than these balloons, some of which were close to active airports.
This guy should be thankful he's not in prison yet, even though he should be.