Drones latest: New Jersey airspace closes to drones as officials try to slow number of sightings

Law enforcement in New Jersey has been forced to warn local citizens against taking matters into their own hands and attempting to shoot down the unidentified flying objects and risking injury, according to ABC News, as the demand for answers continues to grow.

The FBI in Newark and New Jersey State Police warned that there has been an increase in pilots “being hit in the eyes with lasers because people on the ground think they see an Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS).”

“We’re also concerned people will take matters into their own hands and fire a weapon at an aircraft,” FBI Newark Acting Special Agent in Charge Nelson Delgado said in a video message released on Monday.

“Not only is this act against the law, but it poses an incredible danger to the pilots and passengers on those aircraft.”

Dozens of agencies have been working to find answers and track down any operators acting “illegally or with nefarious intent”, the FBI office said.

“However, there could be dangerous and possibly deadly consequences if manned aircraft are targeted mistakenly as UAS.”

“I also think it’s very important for Congress to act,” Massachusetts Governor Maura Healey told Boston 25 News.

First, she said they need to change the law to allow states to investigate and prosecute illegal drone activity.

Secondly, Healey noted that her government would like to see better drone detection technology.

Following a classified briefing from federal officials regarding recent drone sightings on the East Coast, House Intelligence members are asking for more information.

Rep. Jim Himes of Connecticut, the top Democrat on the panel, explained on Tuesday that they were told any drones were not operated by the federal government and no laws were being broken by the drones.

“We have no idea who owns these drones, assuming these drones are, in fact, drones,” he told reporters, according to The Washington Times. “Again, everybody who studied this has arrived at the conclusion that most of these sightings are commercial aircraft.”

Dennis Sinnett, the chair of Eastern Kentucky University’s School of Aviation, is speaking out about drones as reports of the aerial vehicles continue to crop up around the country.

“Depending on how close you are or how far you are from a drone, a lot of the flight patterns are very similar to airplanes,” Sinnett told LEX 18.

“They have the same type of aircraft markings, lighting that are similar to aircraft,” he said.

The Department of Defense is sending additional resources to New Jersey’s Picatinny Arsenal and Naval Weapons Station Earle to better enable the installations to detect, track, and monitor drone activity.

“Commanders can use the recently released counter unmanned systems strategy to craft their responses to any incursions,” the Department of Defense said in a news release.

President Joe Biden insisted that there is “no sense of danger” concerning the mysterious spate of drone sightings over New Jersey and New York.

“Nothing nefarious apparently, but they’re checking it all out,” he told reporters at the White House on Tuesday amid growing public demands for an explanation. “We’re following this closely, but so far no sense of danger.”

Biden also noted the number of drones legally flying, adding: “There’s a lot of drones authorized up there. I think one started it and they all – everybody wanted to get in the deal.”

A Vermot man says reports of drones around the eastern US have his family on the edge.

“What’s it all about? It’s mindboggling,” Travis Paquet, of East Montpelier, asked WCAX.

“We were coming home and seeing multiple lights flashing in the sky that was just not normal for East Montpelier, and we don’t ever see it. It’s cool to look up there and see that stuff but if you don’t know what it is and why it’s there, it can be disheartening for sure,” he said.

Pentagon Press Secretary Air Force Major General Pat Ryder was asked Tuesday what visual or sensor data similarities had been seen in drones over US military installations.

“I’m not going to have any information to provide in terms of sensor data, other than, again, as I highlighted earlier, we are employing a variety of both passive and active sensors in order to detect, as it pertains to DOD installations,” said Ryder. “And of course, we’re not the only ones in this business when it comes to US civil airspace.”

“I’d certainly refer you to DHS and FAA on that front,” he added.

Authorities in the Southern California city of San Diego reportedly tracked down a large drone that was flying near the downtown area early Tuesday.

Officers responded to reports of the drone as it moved between the city and the resort city of Coronado, according to KGTV.

It circled the area for at least an hour before police lost track of it.