BY C STONE | STONE NEWS NETWORK
Nothing can be more annoying than the sound of a drone hovering nearby; except for the leaf blower sound, nothing compares to it.
For the past month, people in New Jersey have been seeing more drones, and some - apparently - the size of a 'school bus' have been reported.
"That was a drone over my house, and I’ve never seen anything like that before and I’ve been living at that house for 30 years," Chris Christie said.
More to the point, why exactly are drones visiting nuclear power plants? Are they performing geographic surveys? It should be noted that it's illegal to fly drones anywhere near nuclear power facilities. And yet it happened.
The fact these drones have navigation lights should tell you they are likely public sector devices. We've never heard of secret military drones flying with navigation lights.
A suspicion would be someone is trying to scare people. Or perhaps they are just running these drones into people's back yards to annoy them.
[From Forbes]
Key Facts
Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas told ABC News on Sunday, “there's no question that people are seeing drones,” though some of the recent sightings in New Jersey and other East Coast states might be manned aircraft or duplicates.
Mayorkas said officials have deployed extra resources to look into the sightings and will let the public know if there is reason for concern—“we are on it,” he said—but so far, there’s no indication of foreign involvement, and some of the sightings could be linked to a Federal Aviation Administration rule change last year to let drones fly at night.
The sightings have caused concern and alarm across several states, with social media users posting videos of lit objects hovering in the sky at night, and state officials asking the federal government for clarity.
Sen. Andy Kim, D-N.J., posted several videos on X of alleged drone sightings he recorded while out with police Thursday night, and described them doing maneuvers that are uncharacteristic of planes—though he acknowledged Saturday that “deeper analysis” indicated most of the sightings were “almost certainly planes.”
Kim said “others may have seen actual drone activity,” and argued federal officials “should provide information and guidance to the public.”
Connecticut state Sen. Tony Hwang released a statement Friday saying there were “sightings of possible unauthorized drones” in Fairfield, Connecticut, saying the state must be “proactive, not reactive” in getting answers, even if it means “shooting drones down.”
Michael Melham, the mayor of Belleville, New Jersey, told Fox News the state’s Office of Emergency Management urged him to “immediately call the [county] bomb squad” if there is a “downed drone” nearby and that the fire department was “instructed to wear hazmat suits” around any fallen drone, saying it’s unclear if the drones have a “payload.”
New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy repeated his call for more federal support Thursday as reports of these drone sightings continued without explanation.
The reports started when New Jersey police announced Nov. 19 that officers had witnessed “drone activity” the previous night over Morris County, in the state’s northwest corner, and said they would investigate the activity, noting rumors were “spreading on social media” though there was “no known threat to public safety.”
A New Jersey police chief in a press conference described the drones as the size of a car and bigger than the standard drones available for amateur drone flyers; sightings have been “occurring nightly for the past two weeks beginning just after sunset and lasting well into the early morning hours” Joseph Orlando, the chief of police in Florham Park, New Jersey, said in a statement on Dec. 4.
The FAA responded in early December by implementing and later extending “temporary flight restrictions” on drone use over the Picatinny Arsenal military base and Bedminster, which is home to President-elect’s Donald Trump’s golf club.
On Dec. 3, the FBI joined several New Jersey police investigations, announcing a public request for more information on the observed “cluster of what look to be drones and a possible fixed-wing aircraft.”
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