As the planes approached the Chinese balloon, amateurs listened.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The incredible scene as US fighter jets prepare to strike a Chinese balloon has many on the Carolina coast tensing their necks and pointing their smartphones into the sky to capture the moment of impact.

But instead, a group of aviation enthusiasts carefully scanned the radio frequencies for the exchange between pilots that would follow as Huntress, NORAD’s eastern air defense controller, tracked the exact distance at which two US Air Force F-22 fighters approached in the air. on target.

Pilots had to balance hitting the balloon when it was at least six miles (10 kilometers) from shore — a distance NASA recommended the military allow to keep debris from falling to the ground — while ensuring it was still within US territorial airspace.

“Five miles offshore,” says the Huntress in a broadcast that was made by aviation buff Ken Harrell in a recording authenticated by NORAD.

“Frank one caught fire,” the first F-22 reports. The call sign “Frank” was assigned to both aircraft in honor of 2nd Lt. Frank Luke, who received the Medal of Honor in World War I for shooting down several balloons and aircraft. .

“Frank Two is switching to hot,” the second F-22 radios.

When the Huntress states that the balloon is exactly six nautical miles away, Frank the First fires a shot.

“The balloon is completely destroyed!” radios an F-15 fighter that also took part in the mission and quickly reports that “it looks like there are clouds of metal chaff. … It’s definitely metal destruction.”

This sound, first reported by The Drive, was not on the civilian radio frequencies that commercial pilots use. The Air Force pilots communicated on an unencrypted military frequency that the North American Aerospace Defense Command uses to conduct security missions in the eastern United States under the control of a control center called Huntress.

Aviation enthusiasts with the right radios look for Huntress missions and other military flying as a hobby, inducing exercise.

The story goes on

Ken Harrell, a 68-year-old retiree from Summerville, South Carolina, is one such enthusiast. On Saturday, he recorded a downed ball exchange.

NORAD confirmed the tape’s authenticity in a statement to the Associated Press.

When Harrell started a few years ago, he said he “buyed the right type of scanner, installed, you know, a decent antenna and a lot of software to connect to the scanner, and just started listening.” costs about $160 to get started.

On Saturday, he received a call from an enthusiastic colleague who said that Huntress was sending an F-22 to hit what the Pentagon said was a spy balloon, while China insisted it was a civilian weather balloon.

“He says turn on the scanner, man! The Huntress was flying the F-22 Raptors, you know as far as the hot air balloon they will do it,” Harrell said. “So I jumped up, turned everything on and started listening.”

When Harrell heard the voices of the pilots and the controller, “I was thrilled,” he said. “I listened to a lot of other things — fighter training, interception exercises, which is cool, but when I first turned on the scanner and it switched to the frequency of my local Huntress, it became clear: this was a mission. Boom”.

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