The New Jersey drone mystery has prompted aviation regulators to impose a massive ban on the aircraft.
For weeks, hundreds of people have reported seeing mysterious orbs in the skies above the US state. Officials have attempted to calm the fear by declaring there is no threat to national security.
Despite this, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has recently taken action to expand a state-wide ban on drones, raising concerns that there is more to the tale.
The restriction was previously in effect for 22 towns and municipalities, but another nine have been added. While the overall number of drone reports appears to have decreased in recent days, new footage of sightings in Somerset, Ocean, and Bergen counties has emerged on social media.
It’s unclear why the additional limits have been implemented. The FAA forwarded questions from local reporters to the federal Department of Homeland Security, which then returned the questions back to the FAA. An FBI spokesperson forwarded inquiries about the limits to the FAA.
An FBI representative stated that the agency has investigated over 5,000 reports received from the public, with approximately 100 being characterized as “credible.” Federal officials assert that drones pose no threat to national security or the general public.
The National Security Council spokesman, John Kirby, emphasized that there was no danger, saying, “We have not identified anything anomalous or any national security or public safety risk over civilian airspace in New Jersey or other states in the Northeast.”
Ocean County Sheriff Michael G. Mastronardy told reporters that his deputies used their own drone to track down a group of mysterious aircraft spotted “coming off the ocean” by a local cop. However, he said the “industrial-grade” drone couldn’t keep up with the attackers.
In December, Ocean County officials urged for a state of emergency to be proclaimed so that federal resources could be mobilized to combat drones. The sightings appear to have peaked in mid to late December, but they persist despite the rising drone restrictions.
New Jersey Congressman Jeff Van Drew, who earlier claimed that an Iranian “mothership” was deploying the drones, told The New York Post that his own “high-clearance” sources within the US administration corroborated his assumption that the objects were espionage drones operated by a hostile state.
“Something’s very wrong,” he said. “We’ve got unidentifiable, sophisticated drones, as big as minivans, carefully navigating airspace that’s not covered by radar, in a very important part of our country, and still, a month later, we somehow don’t know anything.”
Van Drew continued, “We’re being told, ‘Don’t worry, everything’s okay.'”
Meanwhile, Monmouth County Sheriff Shaun Golden echoed calls to declare a state of emergency, saying: “Residents are growing frightened by the spike in drone activity after dark, raising worries about public safety and security.
“We can’t wait much longer. The governor must act immediately, and the Air National Guard must come in to safeguard our towns.”