Dozens of reported drone sightings in the skies above New Jersey have alarmed lawmakers and local officials and left them searching for answers. Gov. Phil Murphy said there were nearly 50 reported sightings in a single night over the weekend. And since mid-Nov, drones have been reported in at least 10 counties in New Jersey and in parts of New York City.
Eleven drones have been spotted near Picatinny Arsenal, an army facility, since Nov 13, said its public affairs specialist Timothy Rider. He said the “increased activity” was not the result of military operations related to the base.
John Kirby, spokesperson for National Security Council, said Thursday that federal authorities had not been able to corroborate any of the reported sightings. “To the contrary, upon review of available imagery, it appears many of the reported sightings are actually manned aircraft that are being operated lawfully,” Kirby said.
Still, Kirby said the spate of reports and public concern underscored the importance of systems to detect and deter drones. Such tools should be made available to local law enforcement officials, he said.
FBI and department of homeland security will continue to investigate the reported sightings, he said, stressing that they did not appear to pose a threat to public safety.
Even as officials assured the public they had nothing to fear, New Jersey residents have described the rash of sightings as unsettling. Social media forums dedicated to the “mystery” have accumulated thousands of posts. One Facebook group has more than 25,000 members who share videos and swap theories.
Robert Wheeler, assistant director of FBI’s Critical Incident Response Group, said in testimony to Congress Tuesday that the bureau was “actively investigating” the sightings.
In Ocean County, New Jersey, the local sheriff’s office has been using its own drones to investigate night time sightings, hoping to determine where the objects land and what precisely they are. They have had little luck so far.
“We’re not getting good characteristics of the drone,” said Sgt. Kevin Fennessy, who leads the office’s drone unit. “We had one the other night that, as we’re watching it, it just shuts the lights off and it’s gone in pure darkness.” From what he has seen so far, Fennessy thinks the objects are perhaps double the size of the drones in his fleet, flying at top speeds that are about 20mph faster. Ocean County is near the flight path for airplanes landing at Kennedy Airport in New York, but Fennessy believes the objects are indeed drones, since they do not appear on flight tracking software.
Luis Figueiredo, a detective and drone specialist with the police department in New Jersey, said the descriptions of the sightings suggested that the drones were much larger and faster – and “a lot more sophisticated” – than those widely available to the public.
But Joshua Tan, a professor of physics and astronomy at LaGuardia Community College, explained that while some sightings could be drones, others might be the consequence of confirmation bias: After hearing reports, people might become newly attentive to objects in the night sky.
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