December is the month of twinkling lights and heavy air traffic. This holiday season’s strangest phenomenon appears to have collided. Sudden, baseless panic that remote-controlled drones are patrolling the night skies over the East Coast of the United States.
A month ago, law enforcement officials in northern New Jersey said they were investigating reports of drones flying overhead at night, stressing in a statement that there was “no known threat to public safety.” . They also warned against believing or spreading rumors allegedly witnessed on the internet. “We urge the public to keep in mind that what they read online may not be accurate,” they wrote.
The public does the opposite, and so do many politicians and commentators. New Jersey Rep. Tom Kean tweeted last week that, thanks in part to shady “breaking news” accounts, videos purporting to show mysterious drone activity have been circulating on TikTok, Facebook, and X (formerly Twitter). He posted this to express his “deeper psychology.” “We are frustrated by the growing concern that drones are flying in our skies,” he said, calling on federal agencies to investigate the issue. New Jersey Sen. Andy Kim went out Friday with police to observe lights over a reservoir in the state’s rural countryside, some of them performing “manoeuvres that you can’t do in an airplane,” X video shows. argued in the thread. But the next day, he recanted, saying further analysis had proven that most of the possible drones seen in the available footage were “almost certainly airplanes.”
Not everyone was so willing to accept such a plausible explanation for the blurry, flashing lights captured with a smartphone camera. For example, incoming conspiracy theorist chief executive Donald Trump posted on Truth Social on Friday: “Mysterious drone sightings are occurring all over the country. Are things like this really happening without the government’s knowledge? I don’t think so! It’s time to let the people know. Otherwise. Shoot it down!!!” This heightened rhetoric was picked up by Joe Concha, a New Jersey resident and FOX News commentator who shared his own footage of the flashing lights that night, telling X. I wrote it like this. White while flying by something white that appeared about an hour ago. Trump is right: Shoot. these. thing. under. “House of Representatives Marjorie Taylor Greene, who has falsely claimed that this year’s Hurricane Helen was engineered by Democrats and that space lasers controlled by Jewish bankers were used to start the wildfires. The congressman shared President Trump’s post about X and chimed in: “Shoot the drones.” under! ! ! ”
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Other reports of suspected drones have come from areas of New York, Maryland and Virginia. But the FBI, which set up a tip line to address such concerns, said Saturday that only a small number of the thousands of calls it has received require further investigation. The agency added that most sightings in the New Jersey/New York metropolitan area match the flight paths of planes arriving at and departing from busy Newark Liberty, JFK and LaGuardia airports. In addition to civilian airliners, objects identified as drones turned out to be military cargo planes, Goodyear blimps, and the Venus, which is highly visible at this time of year. Among those who have mistaken Orion’s stars for drones are sports business analyst Darren Lovell and former Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan, who posted a video of the evening sky near his home in the state. Now, he shares, “The American people deserve answers and action.” ”
There have been no reports of “drones” being shot down or shots being fired at aircraft, but it appears that people on the ground are used to pointing laser pointers at civilian planes. Laser pointers can damage or disable drones. The X-account @TakeThatClouds, which is dedicated to debunking misinformation about aviation phenomena like so-called “chemtrails,” said it was piloting a light aircraft near Alexandria Field in northern New Jersey when the plane crashed. shared a Facebook comment from a pilot. Suddenly a green laser pointer lit up. “I rattled it a little, but if you’re worried, it’s fine,” the pilot wrote. “We understand that people are concerned, but please think twice before acting on those concerns.” Also on Saturday, a woman in another part of the state said her husband was attacked by what appeared to be a drone. He claimed on Facebook that he had fired a “sniper laser” at Flight records show it was a FedEx flight from Boston to Newark. And last Thursday, a Tennessee teenager was arrested for allegedly shining a green laser at a Metro Nashville Police Department helicopter. Aviation authorities reiterated the dangers of shining lasers at aircraft. The FBI’s Newark office released a similar memo Monday afternoon, warning the public not to fire on suspected unmanned aircraft systems (UAS).
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From late Friday until early Saturday morning, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base outside Dayton, Ohio, closed its airspace due to suspected drone sightings. On Saturday night, Boston police arrested two men on suspicion of operating a drone too close to Logan Airport.
But these incidents haven’t stopped Trump and others from continuing to stir up baseless hysteria about a unique and possibly sinister fleet of drones that the government refuses to explain. At a press conference on Monday, the president-elect claimed, “Both our military and the president know what’s going on with drone sightings,” and that he wants to keep people worried for some reason. “It’s something strange,” he added. is happening. ”
President Trump also expressed skepticism that an “enemy” had invaded U.S. airspace, although some were quick to conclude that “foreign drones” were monitoring U.S. neighborhoods. I jumped on it. Bill Spadea, morning radio host and 2025 Republican candidate for New Jersey governor, wrote in a pinned X-Post promoting new campaign merchandise: ” he wrote. Spadea’s website encourages supporters to install “bold” yard signs that show the drone’s silhouette in the center of the sight. We will not allow our skies to be exploited. ” Spedia is a Trump supporter who has used his radio platform to spread conspiracy theories about the coronavirus vaccine and the 2020 election results.
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Sheriff Sean Golden of Monmouth County, New Jersey, appeared on Fox & Friends on Sunday to announce that police officers have sent a letter to members of Congress arguing that “certain parts of federal law need to be changed.” – If necessary, it is to shoot down drones, that is, drones. ” Golden made it clear that he did not want civilians to shoot drones, but still warned, “If this were a national security exercise, we would fail miserably.”
With no real evidence and a lot of confused speculation, it seems likely that the drone craze will fade away as people get distracted by the year-end holidays. Even changes in the weather can disappear from the news. “Overnight, there have been far fewer drone and UFO sightings over the eastern United States,” atmospheric scientist and meteorologist Matthew Cappucci wrote in the X-Post on Monday morning. “That’s because clouds prevented us from seeing planes, stars, and planets from below.”
