US officials reveal the conclusion of their checking the wreckage of the Chinese balloon

The United States has ended efforts to recover the remains of the huge airship that was shot down off the coast of South Carolina, and US officials said Friday that the analysis conducted so far strengthens the conclusion that it was a spy balloon.

The officials said the United States believes the Navy, Coast Guard and FBI have collected all of the airship’s wreckage from the ocean floor.

The US Northern Command announced, in a statement, that the recovery operations ended on Thursday, and that the last pieces were on their way to the FBI laboratory in Virginia for analysis.

It also reported that air and sea restrictions off South Carolina had been lifted, according to the Associated Press.

The announcement came after an exciting three weeks that saw US fighters shot down four airborne objects.

Namely, the huge Chinese airship and three much smaller ones over Canada, Alaska and Lake Huron.

These are the first known peacetime shootings of unauthorized objects in US airspace.

Officials also said the search for the small airborne object that went down over Lake Huron has been halted, and no debris has been recovered.

The US officials spoke on condition of anonymity, given their talk of a military operation.