The Chinese spy balloon shot down by a US fighter jet over the Atlantic in February did not collect intelligence as it flew across the United States, the Pentagon said on Thursday (Jun 29). "It's been our assessment now that it did not collect while it was transiting the United States or overflying the United States," said Pentagon spokesman Pat Ryder. Ryder said the US "took steps to mitigate" intelligence collection by the balloon. "Certainly the efforts we made contributed" to that, Ryder said, without further explanation.