Jeff Arnold
Mon, December 23, 2024
(NewsNation) — Americans’ fascination and frustration levels with mysterious drone sightings continue to grow although the number of reports involving unidentified objects has dipped in the past few days.
Federal agencies like the FBI have not provided definitive answers about where the drones are coming from. The agencies continue to maintain that the drones are not the property of the U.S. military and that there is no reason for concern about the objects being operated by foreign governments.
Last week, the Federal Aviation Administration temporarily banned drones in certain parts of New York and New Jersey, where Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy maintains that anti-drone technology that was sent to the state isn’t working.
Government handling of drones a ‘catastrophe’: Elizondo
“I think momentum and frustration is growing on this issue,” Brad Crispin, the co-founder of Americans for Safe Aerospace, told NewsNation.
Crispin said out of the thousands of reported drone sightings, some have been misidentified. But he said that the main story surrounding the issue is the vulnerabilities that now exist in American airspace and the nation’s critical infrastructure.
He said that a percentage of what people are seeing in the sky is “truly concerning.”
Crispin said that sightings at Picatinny Arsenal and Trump National Golf Course in New Jersey likely sparked the national fascination with drones. But the sightings are instead a “years-running pattern” with mysterious overflights in sensitive areas by unidentified objects.
“Pilots are concerned, members of the Senate Intelligence and Armed Services Committee are concerned, and they’ve been raising the warning for years,” Crispin said.
Crispin said the biggest concern is that federal agencies don’t know where the drones are coming from. Given the temporary bans in two states that will last until mid-January and anxiety over the misidentification of drones, Crispin said it has become evident that federal officials don’t have the drone issue under control.
“I think only a fraction of these (sightings) are concerning,” Crispin told NewsNation. “But people want answers. Let’s identify what’s in our skies, There shouldn’t be unknown objects operating over military bases, operating over critical infrastructure. There’s no reason for it.”
Copyright 2024 Nexstar Media, Inc.
Debunking false claims about US drone sightings | Fact check roundup
Andre Byik, USA TODAY
Mon, December 23, 2024
The surge of drone sightings in New Jersey and across the U.S. has prompted an array of conspiracy theories and false claims online.A joint statement on Dec. 17 from the FBI, Department of Homeland Security, Federal Aviation Administration and Department of Defense said the sightings include legal commercial, hobbyist and law enforcement drones, as well as manned planes and helicopters. Two days later, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul said drones would be banned over certain "critical infrastructure" in the state. The FAA announced similar restrictions in New Jersey.While President Joe Biden said there doesn't appear to be anything "nefarious" about the sightings, social media users have continued to spread misinformation about the aircraft's origin and mission.
Here's a roundup of checks about drone sightings from the USA TODAY Fact Check Team:
Claim: Video shows drone crash in New Jersey
Our rating: False
The video does not show a drone crash. The footage is from a Dec. 12 plane crash near the border of New York and Connecticut, according to media reports.
Full fact check: Video shows plane wreck near Connecticut, not New Jersey drone crash
Claim: Drones deployed in New Jersey to search for missing radioactive material
Our rating: False
No drones were used in the search for the substance, according to a spokesperson for the New Jersey agency in charge of overseeing its recovery. The first drone sightings predate the misplacement of the substance by two weeks.
Full fact check: Drones were not used to find radioactive material lost in New Jersey
Claim: Pentagon ‘confirmed’ drones spotted in US skies are ‘not of earthly origin’
Our rating: False
The Pentagon said nothing of the sort. While a spokesperson ruled out a foreign “adversary" or the U.S. military as operators of the crafts, she suggested other possible explanations for the sightings in the same news conference.
Full fact check: Pentagon spokesperson did not 'confirm' drones were from space
Claim: Image shows drone that crashed in Alabama in December 2024
Our rating: False
The image has circulated online since at least February 2023 and shows a replica spacecraft from the "Star Wars" movies.
Full fact check: No, that's not a crashed drone. It's a TIE fighter replica
Thank you for supporting our journalism. You can subscribe to our print edition, ad-free app or e-newspaper here.
USA TODAY is a verified signatory of the International Fact-Checking Network, which requires a demonstrated commitment to nonpartisanship, fairness and transparency. Our fact-check work is supported in part by a grant from Meta.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Northeast drone sighting claims debunked | Fact check roundup
Drone sightings have Fayetteville store owner worried about negative impact
Mon, December 23, 2024
The surge of drone sightings in New Jersey and across the U.S. has prompted an array of conspiracy theories and false claims online.A joint statement on Dec. 17 from the FBI, Department of Homeland Security, Federal Aviation Administration and Department of Defense said the sightings include legal commercial, hobbyist and law enforcement drones, as well as manned planes and helicopters. Two days later, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul said drones would be banned over certain "critical infrastructure" in the state. The FAA announced similar restrictions in New Jersey.While President Joe Biden said there doesn't appear to be anything "nefarious" about the sightings, social media users have continued to spread misinformation about the aircraft's origin and mission.
Here's a roundup of checks about drone sightings from the USA TODAY Fact Check Team:
Claim: Video shows drone crash in New Jersey
Our rating: False
The video does not show a drone crash. The footage is from a Dec. 12 plane crash near the border of New York and Connecticut, according to media reports.
Full fact check: Video shows plane wreck near Connecticut, not New Jersey drone crash
Claim: Drones deployed in New Jersey to search for missing radioactive material
Our rating: False
No drones were used in the search for the substance, according to a spokesperson for the New Jersey agency in charge of overseeing its recovery. The first drone sightings predate the misplacement of the substance by two weeks.
Full fact check: Drones were not used to find radioactive material lost in New Jersey
Claim: Pentagon ‘confirmed’ drones spotted in US skies are ‘not of earthly origin’
Our rating: False
The Pentagon said nothing of the sort. While a spokesperson ruled out a foreign “adversary" or the U.S. military as operators of the crafts, she suggested other possible explanations for the sightings in the same news conference.
Full fact check: Pentagon spokesperson did not 'confirm' drones were from space
Claim: Image shows drone that crashed in Alabama in December 2024
Our rating: False
The image has circulated online since at least February 2023 and shows a replica spacecraft from the "Star Wars" movies.
Full fact check: No, that's not a crashed drone. It's a TIE fighter replica
Thank you for supporting our journalism. You can subscribe to our print edition, ad-free app or e-newspaper here.
USA TODAY is a verified signatory of the International Fact-Checking Network, which requires a demonstrated commitment to nonpartisanship, fairness and transparency. Our fact-check work is supported in part by a grant from Meta.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Northeast drone sighting claims debunked | Fact check roundup
Drone sightings have Fayetteville store owner worried about negative impact
Kylie Neel
Mon, December 23, 2024
Drone sightings have Fayetteville store owner worried about negative impact
FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. (KNWA/KFTA) — Mysterious drone sightings around the nation are impacting drone store owners around Northwest Arkansas and the River Valley.
Chris Fink, CEO of Unmanned Vehicle Technologies in Fayetteville, is angry that the drone sightings have had a significant impact on drones as a whole. This is mainly because it could affect how people view drones in the future.
He thinks there are several reasons why people could see drones at night, and not all of them are scary. “The longer this goes on without answers, I think the worse it’s going to get for whoever’s behind it,” said Fink.
Fink says that drones are used for everyday jobs, so it’s not all scary. “You can measure elevation, you can measure surface level changes, you can measure volume, metrics of stockpiles, things like that. So I would say that all it takes is one large entity, whether it’s government or private. It’s important to put out a contact and say, ‘Hey we own all this infrastructure. We need x,y,z,'” said Fink.
What we know about drones over New Jersey, other parts of the US
These drones light up the night sky and you might be worried, but you don’t need to be. “If they were truly doing something nefarious, they’re pretty dumb to keep all those lights on and make it obvious,” said Fink.
Around 10 years ago Fink thought people only associated the word “drone” with military deployments and spying. But now, drones are used in everyday life for a variety of tasks. “We as an industry worked and have worked a long time to get the ‘drone’ word softened a little bit and to say, ‘No, drones aren’t bad.’ They’re likely not used to spy on you they’re being used to do all the work that people are doing already from helicopters, planes or cranes, but they’re doing it a lot more cheaply, safely, and effectively,” said Fink.
So, when Fink sees the negativity surrounding these mysterious drones and the fear they are causing, it upsets him. “On that side of it. I’m angry that somebody hasn’t come out to kind of just calm things down because at a certain point that’s going to turn negative,” said Fink. “Now, every time they see one of our guys out with a drone doing a demo for a department or they see a law enforcement agency using a drone for life-saving activities, that’s going to kind of come with a negative connotation. And, that’s going to sort of undo a little bit of what we’ve done to kind of soften that word,” said Fink.
So as time passes and you continue to see drone sightings in your social media feeds, Fink only asks one thing. “I think everybody needs to just take a cool, calm collected approach and truly, if they see something that they feel is dangerous, report it,” said Fink.
“They can call their local service field offices, the FCO, or the FAA and report it. But I think somebody needs to come out and confirm what’s going on and say ‘Hey, look. It’s just us. We can’t talk about it. We’re sorry. There’s no threat. Everything’s good,” said Fink.
Copyright 2024 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved.
Mon, December 23, 2024
Drone sightings have Fayetteville store owner worried about negative impact
FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. (KNWA/KFTA) — Mysterious drone sightings around the nation are impacting drone store owners around Northwest Arkansas and the River Valley.
Chris Fink, CEO of Unmanned Vehicle Technologies in Fayetteville, is angry that the drone sightings have had a significant impact on drones as a whole. This is mainly because it could affect how people view drones in the future.
He thinks there are several reasons why people could see drones at night, and not all of them are scary. “The longer this goes on without answers, I think the worse it’s going to get for whoever’s behind it,” said Fink.
Fink says that drones are used for everyday jobs, so it’s not all scary. “You can measure elevation, you can measure surface level changes, you can measure volume, metrics of stockpiles, things like that. So I would say that all it takes is one large entity, whether it’s government or private. It’s important to put out a contact and say, ‘Hey we own all this infrastructure. We need x,y,z,'” said Fink.
What we know about drones over New Jersey, other parts of the US
These drones light up the night sky and you might be worried, but you don’t need to be. “If they were truly doing something nefarious, they’re pretty dumb to keep all those lights on and make it obvious,” said Fink.
Around 10 years ago Fink thought people only associated the word “drone” with military deployments and spying. But now, drones are used in everyday life for a variety of tasks. “We as an industry worked and have worked a long time to get the ‘drone’ word softened a little bit and to say, ‘No, drones aren’t bad.’ They’re likely not used to spy on you they’re being used to do all the work that people are doing already from helicopters, planes or cranes, but they’re doing it a lot more cheaply, safely, and effectively,” said Fink.
So, when Fink sees the negativity surrounding these mysterious drones and the fear they are causing, it upsets him. “On that side of it. I’m angry that somebody hasn’t come out to kind of just calm things down because at a certain point that’s going to turn negative,” said Fink. “Now, every time they see one of our guys out with a drone doing a demo for a department or they see a law enforcement agency using a drone for life-saving activities, that’s going to kind of come with a negative connotation. And, that’s going to sort of undo a little bit of what we’ve done to kind of soften that word,” said Fink.
So as time passes and you continue to see drone sightings in your social media feeds, Fink only asks one thing. “I think everybody needs to just take a cool, calm collected approach and truly, if they see something that they feel is dangerous, report it,” said Fink.
“They can call their local service field offices, the FCO, or the FAA and report it. But I think somebody needs to come out and confirm what’s going on and say ‘Hey, look. It’s just us. We can’t talk about it. We’re sorry. There’s no threat. Everything’s good,” said Fink.
Copyright 2024 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved.
New Jersey drone sightings; Authorities still on lookout for flying invasion
Kathleen Hopkins and Lisa Robyn Kruse, Asbury Park Press
Tue, December 24, 2024
Reports of drone sightings in the local skies have decreased dramatically since their peak a few weeks ago, Ocean County Sheriff Michael G. Mastronardy said Monday.
Reports of the sightings of the unmanned aircraft peaked on the weekend of Dec. 8 and 9, the sheriff said.
“Since last week, our numbers decreased considerably," Mastronardy said.
“We’re not getting the calls that we were getting before – very few," he said, adding that he doesn’t have any exact numbers. "We’re just waiting for our federal partners to let us know what’s going on."
The reduction in drone sightings would appear to mimic what happened last December at Langley Air Force Base in Virginia. Over a 17-day span last year, U.S. military personnel reported a fleet of unknown unmanned aircraft were flying over restricted air space at Langley, the Wall Street Journal reported. The incursions then stopped as suddenly as they began.
While the bulk of some 5,000 tips have been dismissed as mistaken sightings of planes, commercial and hobbyist drones, as well as stars, there have been some 100 sightings that the FBI said warrant further attention. Investigators have been unable to locate the drone operators, or where they are launching from or landing. Authorities have also been unable to electronically detect some of the drones, which only fly at night, from dusk to 11 p.m., and often in swarms, authorities have reported.
Unlike hobbyist drones, which measure 12 to 18 inches, these are larger drones. The New Jersey State Police have reported seeing drones that are 6 feet in diameter. Others have described seeing drones as large as a car or small SUV. One Long Branch woman reported seeing a car-sized drone hovering about 50 feet above the tree line on Wyckoff Road near the county reclamation center.
Drone detection unit still active
Mastronardy has assembled a drone unit to track unidentified drones that have crossed the Jersey Shore, checking the craft against flight radar to rule out plane or jet sightings. Drones first began swarming the skies in North Jersey on Nov. 18, and then spread south. One Island Beach State Park police officer reported seeing a swarm of 50 drones come ashore from the ocean.
Mastronardy has said the drone unit has detected drones that are three to four feet long, twice the size of those in his department's unit. State Police have reported that one of their helicopters flew over a six-foot diameter drone, which immediately turned its lights off when the helicopter was overhead. Another law enforcement agency reported spotting a drone as large as eight feet long, Mastronardy said.
Officials have said the FBI launched its investigation into the mystery drones after a sighting by New Jersey State Police. Defense Department representatives now say there were confirmed drone sightings by military personnel at Picatinny Arsenal in Morris County and Naval Weapons Station Earle in Colts Neck.
Asked if his mobile command center is still operating, the sheriff said, “We still have certain things in play. We’re still available. If we get a call, we will go out and assist the local police department and investigate, and try to document . That’s our goal."
When asked if he and his staff at a mobile drone command center in Seaside Heights are still seeing the drones that were inundating the area earlier this month, Mastronardy said, “No," and added that flights on their way to New York are unchanged.
A spokeswoman for Monmouth County Sheriff Shaun Golden did not respond to an inquiry about whether reported drone sightings have decreased in that county.
Drones spotted over military bases
In addition to incursions at Langley, Picatinny Arsenal and Naval Weapons Station Earle, drones shut down flights at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio for a few hours last weekend, and on Sunday at Marine Corps Air Station at Iwakuni, Japan, south of Hiroshima, Stars and Stripes reported.
Meanwhile, Rep. Chris Smith, R-NJ, introduced legislation in Congress that would allow highly trained state law enforcement officers to detect and stop any drones involved in unlawful activities.
Smith’s bill, which he dubbed the Law Against Nefarious Drones, Enforcement, Deconfliction (LANDED) Act, was in response to a request from Golden and Mastronardy for additional authority to respond to potential threats from drones, he said.
“We need to ensure that law enforcement has the authorities, training, and capabilities to take quick action if needed to keep local residents safe, especially as drones continue to advance technologically and have the potential to be increasingly lethal,” Smith said.
Will ‘mystery drones’ impact Santa's global journey? US tracker answers
AFP |
Dec 25, 2024
Santa's journey this year comes after weeks of mysterious sightings of alleged drones in the US state of New Jersey.
Santa Claus has no need to worry about recent mystery drone sightings over New Jersey, a US Air Force general said Tuesday, as an annual tradition of "tracking" Saint Nick swung into action.
General Gregory Guillot's reassurances came as the joint US-Canadian North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) reported that Santa and his reindeer were making stops in Russia and Iran after visiting countries further east including Japan, North Korea and Indonesia.
As of 0100 GMT on Christmas Day, Santa was making his way north across Brazil, headed towards Guyana, according to the tracker.
Santa's journey this year comes after weeks of mysterious sightings of alleged drones in the US state of New Jersey, sparking worldwide curiosity even as many of the reported incidents were debunked.
"Of course we are concerned about drones and anything else in the air," NORAD commander Guillot told Fox News. "But I don't foresee any difficulty at all with drones for Santa this year."
NORAD's Santa tracker dates to 1955, when a Colorado newspaper advertisement printed a phone number to connect children with Santa -- but mistakenly directed them to the hotline for the joint military nerve center.
The director of operations at the time, Colonel Harry Shoup, answered the phone and quickly realized the child calling had the wrong number.
"But (he) didn't want to upset him. So he started talking to the young child and passed along information" on Santa's location, Canadian Air Force Major-General William Radiff, NORAD's current director of operations, told AFP on Tuesday.
"And then afterwards, he talked to the rest of the staff there and said, 'please, we're going to get phone calls today... Let's start doing this.'"
Around the world
The interest has gone global. Last year NORAD's modernized Santa tracker website noradsanta.org -- which includes a 3D map displaying Santa's movements in real time and a ticker showing how many presents have been delivered -- had 20.6 million visits, and more than 400,000 calls were made to the toll-free number, according to Radiff.
"We get calls from all across the world and they really want to know where Santa is," he said.
When not spreading holiday cheer, NORAD conducts aerospace and maritime control and warning operations -- including monitoring for missile launches from North Korea, something perhaps on Santa's mind as he guided his reindeer-hauled sleigh over Pyongyang.
Radiff, embracing the Christmas spirit, said NORAD's infrared-capable satellites could monitor Santa's progress in part because "Rudolph's nose gives off the same signature, so we use that to track him around the world."
NORAD "always does a fantastic job helping us keep tabs on Santa's navigational heading and bearing in the skies above," astronaut Buzz Aldrin, the second person to ever walk on the Moon, said on social media.
This year, as he did last Christmas, US President Joe Biden joined in the fun at NORAD, taking calls from children.
bur/md
No comments:
Post a Comment