A witness with longtime ties to the Hudson Valley spoke to News 12’s Carol Wilkinson about seeing the suspected Chinese surveillance balloon being shot down by U.S. military fighter jets on Saturday.

Ellen Apicella, a South Carolina resident who used to call Yonkers and Mahopac home, witnessed the balloon fly overhead in Myrtle Beach.

As she and her neighbors watched the sky, she then saw an Air Force fighter jet shoot it, causing an audible explosion.

"All of a sudden there was this huge, thunderous explosion. The house was shaking. It was crazy… It was starting to come down slowly, pieces of debris were falling from it and there was another boom. I don't know if they hit it twice, or if it was a sound that happens after, but it was scary,” she said.

Apicella and her neighbors say they still have concerns about the now destroyed surveillance balloon and whether it contained any harmful material that could have been released on the way down.