Finally, There's an Official Reason for the NJ Drone Mystery

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas offered a possible explanation for the recent uptick of drone encounters along the Eastern Seaboard—particularly in the skies above New Jersey—which have prompted concern among residents and lawmakers.

Reports of drone sightings across New Jersey and neighboring states, he said Sunday, may be the result of a rule change by the Federal Aviation Administration.

“In September of 2023, the Federal Aviation Administration, the FAA, changed the rules so that drones could fly at night,” Mayorkas told ABC News' This Week. “And that may be one of the reasons why now people are seeing more drones than they did before, especially from dawn to dusk.”

Link to tweet

The FBI says that it has received over 3,000 tips related to the drone sightings in past weeks, most of which occurred at night. On social media, users have begun sharing videos of what they suspect to be drones. Some of these clips, however, merely captured airplanes or normal aircraft activity.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/biden-official-offers-reason-mystery-222311985.html

[Attilatheblond]

1. Not a really helpful basket of excuse

People want to know what they are and who is flying them. Pointing to a rule change is not helpful.

[newdeal2]

4. Personally think that is unreasonable unless people are willing to accept lots of regulation or restriction of drones

There are so many drones flying at any given point that could be commercial, military, or recreational.

[Attilatheblond]

5. I'm fine with lots of regulation and/or restrictions. When they fly low over people's homes it's pretty invasive

Cameras? Audio surveillance? Noisy intrusions setting off the neighborhood hounds? I don't think it's OK to do a thing just because the thing is technologically possible.

Unless they are gonna drop a pizza on me, I do not want them overhead. Eventually people will start shooting at them. Unlawful for sure, but possibly justifiable when it gets to be a problem.

[newdeal2]

6. I agree

I just think with what we currently have, it’s likely impossible to satisfy every Joe Smith who wants to know who owns the drone that flew over their local Walmart at 9 PM.

So officials are giving generalized answers which probably are also frustrating to people.

[leftyladyfrommo]

2. One less thing to keep me up nights.

I did think Musk might be behind all this.

But no. Just a change inregulations.

[Irish_Dem]

3. If only we had some agencies in charge of national security and national defense.

Who might take a look at these flying objects and figure out what is going on.

And then miracle of miracles, actually calm down the public by telling us something.

[quickesst]

7. When you consider..

... the thousands of drones that fly every single day, I think one would be naive to believe that out of those thousands of day flyers, there is not going to be more than a handful who want to experience flying at night.. It's just simple logic, and I believe, much ado about nothing, so I agree that it is a result of the legalization of flying drones at night.

[highplainsdem]

8. That rule change was a year and three months ago.

[ThoughtCriminal]

9. The drones you should worry about

should be the ones you don't see. Drones flying at night with no bright blinky lights.

[Baitball Blogger]

10. I was listening to these rules on television and not once did I hear that drones are forbidden from being flown over

residential area. I think that's wrong.