Shooting down a balloon is not as easy as it sounds, a US expert said Friday. “These balloons use helium… It’s not the Hindenburg, you can’t just shoot it and then and then it goes up in flames. f you do punch holes in it, it’s just kind of going to leak out very slowly.” He said it was not clear if using surface-to-air missiles would work, because their guidance systems are designed to hit fast-moving missiles and aircraft.Shooting down a balloon is not as easy as it sounds, a US expert said Friday. “These balloons use helium… It’s not the Hindenburg, you can’t just shoot it and then and then it goes up in flames. f you do punch holes in it, it’s just kind of going to leak out very slowly.” He said it was not clear if using surface-to-air missiles would work, because their guidance systems are designed to hit fast-moving missiles and aircraft.
