Rough Seas Complicate Balloon Recovery Effort

Navy divers entered the waters about 7 miles off Myrtle Beach, south Carolina, on Saturday to try to recover the payload of the China spy balloon shot down early in the day by a missile from an Air Force jet.
Navy vessels were off the coast of South Carolina on Monday to recover pieces of the balloon, but rough waters initially complicated the effort, according to U.S. Northern Command.
The online surfing conditions website Surfline.com showed close-to-shore wave heights early Monday morning at about 3 feet, then subsiding to roughly one foot as winds subsided.
The Navy dock landing ship the USS Carter Hall is in the vicinity of where the balloon splashed down, Gen. Glen VanHerck said Monday.
The oceanographic survey ship the USNS Pathfinder is mapping out the balloon’s debris field, predicted at about 1,500 meters by 1,500 meters, or “more than 15 football fields by 15 football fields,” he said.
Rough seas on Sunday curtailed some recovery operations, an official also said.

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