Feds Send Drone-Hunting Resources To NJ As Sightings Continue

NEW JERSEY — After federal authorities appeared to downplay drone sightings in New Jersey, a member of President Joe Biden's cabinet clarified that there is "no question" people are spotting drones in the night sky.

Pentagon officials and two federal agencies said that they were unable to corroborate "any" visual drone sightings in a statement last week.

But on Sunday, U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas told ABC's "This Week" that the government is being "vigilant" in investigating the matter, and acknowledged residents are certainly seeing drones.

“Some of those drone sightings are, in fact, drones," Mayorkas said. "Some are manned aircraft that are commonly mistaken for drones, and we do see duplicative reporting. But there's no question that drones are being sighted.”

Mayorkas said that the federal government has sent "additional resources, personnel, (and) technology" to help New Jersey State Police address the sightings.

Nightly drone sightings have been reported across most of the state, after beginning in Morris County about a month ago. Most of the sightings have been happening from dawn to dusk, with people reporting the aircraft flying in clusters or appearing the size of a car.

Drone flights were reported above two PSE&G nuclear power plants in South Jersey over the weekend, prompting the company to ask the Federal Aviation Administration to shut down airspace over the sites.

Federal investigators say they haven’t been able to figure out where the drones are coming from, but have claimed they aren’t a threat.

Mayorkas went on to say that there are thousands of recreational and commercial drones flown in the United States every day, and that Federal Aviation Administration regulations changed in 2023 allowing people to fly them at night. This could attribute to the rise in sightings, he noted.

He said his department has called on Congress to give local and state officials more authority to address unauthorized drone flights, as right now only federal agencies may do so.

“We want state and local authorities to also have the ability to counter drone activity under federal supervision," Mayorkas said.

Mayorkas added that the Department of Homeland Security has no evidence of "foreign involvement" related to the drone sightings.

Former Gov. Chris Christie said he and his wife saw drones over his Mendham home Friday, also in an appearance with George Stephanopoulos on ABC's "This Week."

"That was a drone over my house, and I’ve never seen anything like that before and I’ve been living at that house for 30 years," Christie said.

Christie said the lack of concrete information from federal and state investigators is creating space for "conspiracy theories" to grow and spread, dismissing U.S. Rep. Jeff Van Drew (R-NJ-2)'s assertions that the drones were coming from an offshore "mothership."

“People see this kind of activity, it’s a newish technology to most people, and they’re worried about it and concerned," Christie said.

"You can see why people are concerned," he continued. "It’s a lack of communication from the government at the federal and state level that’s at fault here.”

Christie also said that the state needs the authority to "bring those drones down and see why they're doing what they're doing," in coordination with the Federal Aviation Administration.

There is also the possibility that frustrated people begin acting as "drone vigilantes" and start shooting them down, he added.

"That's not what we want," Christie said.

Gov. Phil Murphy said he met with New Jersey State Police officials and radar technicians on Sunday, as they patrolled for unmanned aircraft systems near the state Regional Operations & Intelligence Center in Ewing. He also discussed the Federal Bureau of Investigation's probe into the sightings with FBI-Newark Special Agent in Charge Nelson Delgado and his team at Naval Weapons Station Earle in Colts Neck, also Sunday night.

"We are ready to assist the federal government in getting to the bottom of this," Murphy said in a social media post.

Use Reaper drones to hunt mystery aircraft, Congresswoman says

Garden State lawmakers are continuing to press for more answers on behalf of their concerned constituents, and trying to get to the bottom of the sightings themselves.

New Jersey's new U.S. Senator, Andy Kim, said he spent Thursday night looking for drones with local police near Round Valley Reservoir in Hunterdon County. In a series of social media posts, the Democrat shared video of what he observed, saying he saw craft "that would move horizontally and then immediately switch back in the opposite direction in maneuvers that plane can’t do."

Later, Kim said "most" of the possible drone sightings were likely airplanes, a conclusion he came to after looking at flight details and consulting with civilian pilots.

"I don’t discount others may have seen actual drone activity, and not all I saw is fully explained by flight paths, but much of it was," he wrote. "And I think the process through which I got confirmation points to the kind of explanation we need from government authorities to address the public’s concern."

U.S. Rep. Mikie Sherrill (D-NJ-11), a former helicopter pilot with the U.S. Navy, released a five-part plan to locate and track the aircraft, which involves deploying a fleet of MQ-9 Reaper drones which are normally assigned to Customs and Border Protection.

“I’m incredibly frustrated with the lack of coordination and communication from agencies as New Jerseyans continue to watch unidentified drones fly across our skies,” Sherrill said.

Republican state lawmakers have also been requesting more answers from federal authorities, a demand they say the New Jersey governor’s office needs to be more assertive about.

Other lawmakers have urged people to avoid exploiting people’s anxiety over the situation – especially for political gain.

“Spreading rumors, outright lies, conspiracy theories and engaging in political theater with partisan objectives is counterproductive to the well-being of every citizen,” New Jersey Sen. Britnee Timberlake (D-34) said.

State Sen. Jon Bramnick (R-21) also dismissed the "conspiracy theories being offered on social media" last week, saying, "we don't need more of that stuff."

DoD addresses sightings over NJ military bases

The Department of Defense has addressed drone sightings over Picatinny Arsenal and Naval Weapons Base Earle, saying they are "not a new issue" and that such sightings are "typical."

"We've had to deal with drone incursions over our bases for quite a time now," a spokesperson from the Joint Staff said on Friday. "It's something that we routinely respond to in each and every case when reporting is cited."

Federal officials have still be unable to determine who is flying the drones, according to a statement from the Joint Staff.

"To date, we have no intelligence or observations that would indicate that they were aligned with a foreign actor or that they had malicious intent," the spokesperson said. "But ... we don't know. We have not been able to locate or identify the operators or the points of origin."

The New Jersey Office of Homeland Security and Preparedness is asking anyone who witnesses suspicious drone activity to report it to local law enforcement or contact NJOHSP’s Counter-Threat Watch Unit at 866-4-SAFE-NJ (1-866-472-3365) or by email at tips@njohsp.gov.

Members of the public can also report any information related to drone sightings to the FBI at 1-800-CALL-FBI, or submit tips online at tips.fbi.gov.

Related articles —

• 5 Ways To Take Action On Drone Mystery: NJ Congresswoman
• State Police Would Get Drone Interception Powers Under NJ Rep's Plan
• Don’t Approach Downed Drones, Call Bomb Squad, NJ Says

This article contains reporting from Patch's Eric Kiefer.