The federal government is “deploying additional resources” to address the aerial drones that have prompted concern among East Coast residents − many in New Jersey − in recent weeks, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said Sunday.
“There’s no question that people are seeing drones,” he said Sunday on ABC News “This Week.” “I want to assure the American public that we in the federal government have deployed additional resources, personnel, technology to assist the New Jersey State Police in addressing the drone sightings.”
Last week, White House National Security Communications Adviser John Kirby said the drone sightings appeared to be piloted aircraft, adding that there was no evidence the sightings “pose a national security or a public safety threat or have a foreign nexus.”
Kirby did say the Department of Homeland Security and the FBI were working closely with state and local law enforcement to provide “numerous detection methods” to solve the mystery.
For the last few weeks, people in New Jersey have reported drone sightings that has attracted the attention of local residents, politicians and even President-elect Donald Trump. Concerned witnesses have described clusters of lights, saying they look like drones hovering over populated areas around the state. The sightings have expanded to New York and Maryland, but government officials haven’t been able to put people’s minds at ease.
‘Drone sightings’ prompt worries,but these theories could explain what’s happening
Some sightings may not be drones
The FBI and the Department of Homeland Security have said such sightings mostly appear to not be drones at all. “Historically, we have experienced cases of mistaken identity, where reported drones are, in fact, manned aircraft or facilities,” the agencies said in a joint statement.
Harry Direen, an electronic and software engineering expert at DireenTech, said he wouldn’t be surprised if people were seeing drones at first, but that once the notion of drones took hold, people assumed any aircraft they couldn’t identify was a drone.
“After what were likely valid sightings of possibly hobbyist drones, every aircraft can then become suspicious,” he said.
− Jeanine Santucci