The mystery of New Jersey drones may not be so strange after all
Unusual drones seen illegally entering the US Army and Naval Weapons Station Earle over Morris County, New Jersey, are actually manned aircraft
Unexplained aerial vehicles have lit the sky above New Jersey in the middle of November, startling residents and baffling military and government officials. The US Army’s Picatinny Arsenal research and manufacturing facility in the state’s Morris County reported 11 confirmed instances of mysterious drones illegally entering its airspace since the middle of the month, while a dozen drones were spotted hovering over US Naval Weapons Station Earle in Monmouth County in early December. The Coast Guard said a group of drones followed one of the service’s vessels near a state park, just one of many similar incidents across the state.
“We are supporting local law enforcement in New Jersey with numerous detection methods but have not corroborated any of the reported visual sightings with electronic detection,” US authorities said in a statement. “To the contrary, upon review of available imagery, it appears that many of the reported sightings are actually manned aircraft, operating lawfully. There are no confirmed or reported drones in the restricted area.
Other politicians, including Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer and Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, Democrats from New York, and senators Cory Booker and Andy Kim, Democrats from New Jersey, sent a letter to the FBI, DHS, and Federal Aviation Administration on Thursday to demand more transparency and a briefing about the investigation.
U.S. drone searches in New Jersey reveal inconsistencies in state and local drone sightings: State, local, global, and local
Across New Jersey, reports of mysterious drone sightings have been rising for weeks, with people contacting authorities and posting on social media about aerial vehicles behaving strangely, especially at night. The reports have spread in New York City as well, with alleged sightings in Staten Island, Brooklyn, and Queens. The United States Federal Aviation Administration imposed a temporary ban in New Jersey this week on flying drones over the Army’s Picatinny Arsenal in Wharton and a golf course owned by US president-elect Donald Trump in Bedminster. The mystery has become a sensation, but there has been no information provided about if the occurrences are connected or not.
Multiple federal agencies have been working with the New Jersey State Police, but they noted in their statement that there’s no known malicious activity occurring in New Jersey and it highlights the insufficiency of current authorities.
“Today, I spoke with Liz Sherwood-Randall, White House homeland security adviser, to discuss my concerns over the federal government’s response to recent drone sightings in NJ,” New Jersey governor Phil Murphy wrote in a social media post on Thursday. I will continue to press the federal government for answers for the public.