China apologizes to Costa Rica for the balloon that flew over its airspace

(CNN Spanish) — The Costa Rican Foreign Ministry confirmed on Monday that the Chinese government apologized for the balloon that flew over the country’s airspace, after accepting that the object belonged to it.

The incident took place on Thursday, February 2, when images of a white object, similar to a hot air balloon, in the sky of Costa Rica began to circulate on social networks.

Consulted by CNN, Fernando Naranjo Elizondo, director of the General Directorate of Civil Aviation of Costa Rica, said that after the reports that day there was no more information about the balloon, nor about the course it took, so the authorities were not going to do any research. He added that it was ruled out that it was related to projects of the University of Costa Rica or the National Meteorological Institute.

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In a note sent to various media outlets, including CNN, the Costa Rican Foreign Ministry explained that the apologies came from the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, through its Embassy in San José.

“The Embassy reiterated that the balloon that was observed from various parts of the national territory was of a civilian nature and had scientific, mainly meteorological, purposes,” the note says.

The statement states that the Chinese authorities assure “that the object did not represent any threat to any country, and its presence in Costa Rica was due to the fact that it suffered a deviation from the scheduled route, due to weather conditions and its limited self-direction capacity.” .

CNN made the inquiry directly to the Chinese Embassy in Costa Rica and they responded that the device is used for flight tests and that it was affected by weather conditions, which is why it “seriously deviated from the scheduled route and entered the airspace of Latin America and the Caribbean.” The note adds that “China is a responsible country and always acts in strict accordance with international law.”