On Saturday, White House, FBI and DHS officials insisted that recently reported drone sightings in New Jersey and nearby states involved human aircraft and that there was no evidence of a national security threat.
An FBI official told reporters in an unannounced briefing that the agency is working with 50 local, state and federal partners to look into more reports. The official said that of the more than 5,000 reported sightings, less than 100 turned out to merit further investigation, and that all of the large static-ping reported sightings involved human aircraft.
“So far a combination of efforts … to include technical equipment, tip line information and referred consultations … has found no evidence to support large-scale (unmanned aerial system) activities,” the official said, adding that several sightings had occurred. Regular flight routes.
Extensive efforts are underway to investigate the remaining cases using interviews and analysis of radar and intelligence, the official added.
“We cannot ignore the scenes there,” the official said. “We’re doing our best to trace the origin of those drone activities, but I think there’s been a little bit of an overreaction.”
A spate of reported drone sightings that began in New Jersey in mid-November has spread in recent days to include Maryland, Massachusetts and other states. The sightings have attracted media attention and prompted the creation of a Facebook page called “New Jersey Mystery Drone – Let’s Solve It” with 56,000 online members.
US President Joe Biden has been receiving regular updates on the matter, a White House official said.
In Cape Cod, Massachusetts, residents and a Harwich police officer saw 10-15 drones flying in the sky Friday night, the Boston Herald reported.
Police sent information to the Boston FBI and Massachusetts State Police.
Gov. Maura Haley said on Facebook that she, too, is “aware of the increasing number of drones in Massachusetts and we are monitoring the situation closely.”
New York Gov. Cathy Hochul called for a boost in federal law enforcement efforts Saturday after the runway at a local airport in the Hudson Valley was closed for an hour due to drone activity.
“This has gone too far,” Hochul said in a statement on social media network X, urging the Biden administration to increase law enforcement in New York and other areas and calling on Congress to pass drone reform legislation.
A Federal Aviation Administration official said the temporary ban on drone activity at the Picatinny Arsenal, a military base in Wharton, New Jersey, was set to expire on December 26 and could be made permanent.
There were drone sightings at Picatinny and another naval weapons station in December, a military official told reporters, but there was no intelligence or observation that they were linked to foreign actors or had malicious intent. Drone operations at military installations are generally prohibited, but do occur from time to time, the official added.
A second ban was imposed at Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, New Jersey, which was set to expire on Dec. 20, but could be extended, an FAA official said.
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