As chatter over New Jersey drones continues, Gov. Phil Murphy sends letter to President Biden
NEW YORK -- Mysterious drones hovering over New Jersey and other states continue to baffle residents and lawmakers.
Gov. Phil Murphy sent a letter to President Joe Biden on Friday, asking for more help from the federal government.
"While I am sincerely grateful for your administration's leadership in addressing this concerning issue, it has become apparent that more resources are needed to fully understand what is behind this activity," Murphy wrote.
The governor went on to say the ongoing sightings are raising more questions than answers, writing residents "deserve more concrete information."
"I respectfully urge you to continue to direct the federal agencies involved to work together until they uncover answers as to what is behind the UAS (unmanned aircraft systems) sightings," he wrote.
Congressman Josh Gottheimer said he's gotten a briefing on the mystery drones, some of them the size of small cars and undetectable by radar.
"I think it's totally ridiculous that we don't have more information ... It's ridiculous that the FBI and DHS is not briefing the public right now on everything they know about what these drones are," Gottheimer said. "New Jersey can't become the Wild West of drone activity."
Gottheimer said the public has the right to know what he's been told, but he added, "Based on the information and the briefings that I've received to date, I am not concerned about imminent threats to pubic safety or our national security regarding these drones."
The congressman said he's introduced a bill to give local cops more resources and powers to jam drones, especially near military installations like Naval Weapons Station Earle, where authorities say there have been two drone sightings.
"There's technology to be able to get drones down, and my point is that technology should be shared with local law enforcement to be able to respond and take drones that shouldn't be in the air out of the air. As I said, it can't be the Wild West," Gottheimer said.
Authorities caution it's illegal to shoot down any drones.
Newly elected Sen. Andy Kim said he went out with Clinton Police on Thursday night and saw objects in the sky, some of which were undetectable by radar.
"Over the horizon line, appeared to be flying lower to the ground, lower to the surface, and when we looked at some of these, some of them ... We had a flight tracker app with us to try to help us try to identify what aircraft were in the area, and we were able to identify some of them as aircraft, but there were others that didn't necessarily show up, at least in terms of the planning and the flight track," he said.
The Ocean County sheriff's department drone unit said an unknown drone they were monitoring shut its lights off and disappeared when they zoomed in on it with their cameras.
Authorities investigate report of drone crash in Hillsborough Township, New Jersey
Earlier in the day, law enforcement in Somerset County, New Jersey investigated a report of a drone hitting a power line and crashing into a field. Chopper 2 flew over the scene near a Lowe's parking lot off Route 206 in Hillsborough Township, where multiple agencies could be seen combing a wooded area.
The incident was nerve-wracking for residents.
"I saw about 10 drones in total. I live in an apartment complex up the road, and I saw them literally around the apartment complex," Hillsborough Township resident Allyson Betyeman said.
"We need more answers. We deserve more answers 'cause this is the world we live in now," another resident said.
The FBI said it was aware of the incident but could not provide any further information. Hillsborough Police later said they did not find any drones and the scene was cleared, adding "there is no known threat to the public."
Drones spotted over New York
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul also posted on social media Friday, saying, "We know New Yorkers have spotted drones in the air this week & we are investigating."
"At this time, there's no evidence that these drones pose a public safety or national security threat. We are coordinating with federal partners including @FBI and @DHSgov to protect New Yorkers," Hochul wrote.
The Federal Aviation Administration says it's investigating after a Spirit Airlines flight crew reported a drone nearby while on approach to LaGuardia Airport after 11:30 p.m. Thursday. The flight landed safely, but they say operating drones around airports is illegal and the operator could face possible jail time.
Meanwhile on Staten Island, elected officials held a news conference Friday about the sightings, calling on the NYPD to do more to investigate the drones that have been seen over military bases, key points of interest and residential neighborhoods.
"Millions of people around here, in New Jersey and of course Staten Island and beyond, are getting nothing but, 'don't believe what you see,'" Borough President Vito Fossella said. "The people of Staten Island deserve answers, the people of this city and state and region deserve answers of what the heck is going on."
The borough president brought up recent sightings over the Verrazzano-Narrows and Goethals bridges and said, while he hasn't seen the drones himself, a neighbor sent him a video of what appeared to be one over his house.
"Let's be honest with the American people and treat them like adults and tell them what it is," he said.
Fossella was joined by Rep. Nicole Malliotakis, State Sen. Jessica Scarcella-Spanton and other local officials for the briefing.
Retired NYPD officer Tony Garcia, who works for Malliotakis, said he believes he's spotted a few.
"I have a recreational drone, so they look a little bigger than the recreational drone," he said.
"It's not right to us, as we get hundreds upon hundreds of constituent requests and questions asking what this is about that we have no answer," said Scarcella-Spanton. "So this is us standing today demanding an answer. We need to be able to tell our constituents what is going on."
The NYPD has said it is investigating the drone activity with the FBI's Joint Terrorism Task Force. Some of the most recent sightings were reported Thursday in the South Bronx and St. Albans, Queens.
Feds pressed for details about drones
Leaders in Washington, D.C. are also pressing for a federal briefing on the situation. Senators Chuck Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand, of New York, and Cory Booker and Andy Kim, of New Jersey, sent a letter to the Department of Homeland Security, the FBI and FAA on Thursday calling the sightings alarming and a potential safety risk.
"We should know what's going on over our skies," Booker said.
The White House is trying to assuage the public, saying many of the more than 3,000 reported sightings may have been planes mistaken for drones.
"We have no evidence, at this time, that reported drone sightings pose a national security or public safety threat or have a foreign nexus," said White House national security spokesperson John Kirby.
"From my firsthand experience conducting operations for the FBI as well as investigations into the suspected sightings of drones at critical infrastructure is that it was fairly common for drones for ... crude aircraft and even lower orbit satellites to be misidentified as drones at night," said Tom Adams, a former FBI supervisory special agent who helped pioneer the agency's counter-drone program.
Adams added that he believes some of the operators are likely copycats who started flying their drones at night after seeing recent news reports about the mystery.
The mysterious drones have also been spotted in the skies over Pennsylvania, Maryland and Connecticut. Connecticut State Police say they're using a drone detection system to investigate.
Politicians continue to express frustration with what they believe to be inaction from the federal government. Connecticut Sen. Richard Blumenthal called for the unmanned drones to be shot down, though it's still unclear who is operating them.
