After the Federal Bureau of Investigation received tips about more than 5,000 reported drone sightings over recent weeks, around 100 investigation leads have been generated. State and local officials are working with the federal government to investigate.
As of this Tuesday, a joint statement from the Department of Homeland Security, the Department of Defense, the Federal Aviation Administration and the Federal Bureau of Investigation said that none of the sightings have been identified as a national security threat. President Joe Biden also addressed the drone sightings Wednesday.
“Nothing nefarious, apparently, but they’re checking it all out,” he said.
Concerns about the drones increased last week, over the weekend and into this week.
“Mystery Drone sightings all over the Country. Can this really be happening without our government’s knowledge. I don’t think so! Let the public know, and now. Otherwise, shoot them down!!!” said President-elect Donald Trump in a Truth Social post last Friday.
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul and New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy both issued statements about the sightings and asked for help to investigate. This Monday, Hochul provided an update on the situation.
“In response to my calls for additional resources, our federal partners are deploying a state-of-the-art drone detection system to New York State. This system will support state and federal law enforcement in their investigations,” she said. “We are grateful to the Biden Administration for their support, but ultimately we need further assistance from Congress. Passing the Counter-UAS Authority Security, Safety, and Reauthorization Act will give New York and our peers the authority and resources required to respond to circumstances like we face today.”
During Biden’s comments Wednesday, he said: “There’s a – they think it’s just one – there’s a lot of drones authorized to be up there. And I think one started, and they all got — everybody wanted to get in the deal.”
According to the DoD, there are more than one million drones lawfully registered with the Federal Aviation Administration in the U.S. There are also thousands of commercial, hobbyist and law enforcement drones that are lawfully in the sky on “any given day,” the department added.
“Having closely examined the technical data and tips from concerned citizens, we assess that the sightings to date include a combination of lawful commercial drones, hobbyist drones, and law enforcement drones, as well as manned fixed-wing aircraft, helicopters, and stars mistakenly reported as drones,” said the DoD. “We have not identified anything anomalous and do not assess the activity to date to present a national security or public safety risk over the civilian airspace in New Jersey or other states in the northeast.”
Speaking to Audacy station WWL Radio this week, Will Austin, president and chief drone pilot at Warren Community College in New Jersey, also said that some of the alleged drones seem to be regular aircraft.
“We’ve been able to identify the vast majority of them as airplanes,” he said of the footage he’s seen. “A lot of them were taken near the airport. Some of the video actually, you could see the airplane landing at the airport. And I was taken aback by that because I was... I was looking at something that’s obviously not a drone to most people, but that person... to them, it was a drone.”
Still, the investigators are working to follow leads with “advanced detection technology,” and to the “trained visual observers.” Furthermore, the DoD said it recognizes the concern about these drones among many communities and it urged Congress to enact counter-UAS legislation when it reconvenes.
“Additionally, there have been a limited number of visual sightings of drones over military facilities in New Jersey and elsewhere, including within restricted air space,” said the DoD. “Such sightings near or over DoD installations are not new. DoD takes unauthorized access over its airspace seriously and coordinates closely with federal, state, and local law enforcement authorities, as appropriate. Local commanders are actively engaged to ensure there are appropriate detection and mitigation measures in place.”
Audacy station KYW Newsradio also reported Thursday that the FAA temporarily banned drone use above several New Jersey cities through Jan. 17 in the wake of the drone concerns. On Monday, FBI Newark issued a warning against pointing lasers at manned aircraft or attempting to shoot down suspected unmanned aircraft systems (UAS).