The US Air Force pilot glances back as a camera focuses on the white airship floating below - a Chinese balloon on a flight across the US that not only worsened already fraught Beijing-Washington relations but touched off a political firestorm for the Biden administration.

The photo, taken Feb 3 from the cockpit of a U-2 spy plane and released by the Defense Department on Feb 22, quickly blazed across social media platforms and the Internet, labeled a high-altitude “selfie”.

A day later, the balloon would be observed by another Air Force pilot whose mission was not to take photographs, but to ready an AIM-9X Sidewinder missile to put an end to its flight.

The F-22 Raptor warplane, flying at about 58,000 feet, shot it down off the South Carolina coast.

US President Joe Biden said the aircraft had been “gathering information over America”, while Chinese officials asserted that it was a weather balloon that went adrift.

The US Navy ended its search for debris late last week.

 - Bloomberg