Chinese Spy Balloon Crash and Recovery Captured in Videos by South Carolina Residents

It's a bird! It's a plane! It's a Chinese spy balloon being shot out of the sky by an F-22 fighter jet!

A few lucky photographers in South Carolina captured the awesome moment that a U.S. missile tore through a spy balloon and exploded in the sky, before solar panels, recording devices, and much more began pouring out like candy from a deflated piñata.

John Snyder was one of those photographers.

"I walked out to the driveway in the front yard, and I was like, 'oh hey, there's the balloon,'" Snyder tells Inside Edition.

A few minutes later, an F-22 fired an AIM-120 into the balloon, and Snyder captured it all on video.

"I knew I had got the shot. That's basically all it was, being in the right place at the right time," says Snyder.

Travis Hufflesteder was not as lucky.

"I was just getting the camera up as I've seen the missile come out of the plane, and I'm like: 'man I'm missed it,'" says Hufflesteder. "It was intense."

Fisherman Brady Deal got footage the next day of the balloon being brought to shore — allegedly.

The Department of Defense and Pentagon would not confirm if that video showed the actual balloon when asked for comment.

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