Chinese spy balloon: US release 'selfie' image which shows US pilot flying over Chinese 'spy balloon'

The US Department of Defense has released an image taken by an airman as he flew over the Chinese balloon shot down earlier this month.

The photo shows the top of the pilot’s helmet inside the U-2 cockpit with the balloon flying below. It was taken on February 3 as the balloon “hovered over the Central Continental United States”, according to the caption provided by the Defence Department.

The pilot took a close-up photo of the large white orb just a day before the Air Force shot it down off the South Carolina coast.

The Pentagon released the image on Wednesday – more than two weeks after the balloon made international headlines as it transited the United States.

The photo shows the top of the pilot’s helmet inside the U-2 cockpit with the balloon flying below.

The balloon was downed on February 4 by an F-22 fighter jet firing a AIM-9X Sidewinder missile. The strike took place once the balloon was no longer over land, but was still within US territorial waters.

The U-2 Dragon Lady is a high altitude US spy plane that has been in service since the 1950s.

The Pentagon announced on Friday last week that Navy ships and submersibles had completed recovery of the massive balloon and its payload, which fell in pieces into the Atlantic Ocean.

The payload is being analysed by the FBI, Pentagon spokeswoman Sabrina Singh said.

Three other smaller objects were also shot down by Air Force jets within a period of eight days – one over Alaska, one over Canada and one over Lake Huron. Searches for the Alaska and Lake Huron objects have ended.

A senior State Department official said fly-bys revealed it "was capable of conducting signals intelligence collection operations".