People are seeing things. Blinking lights. Alone, in groups. Moving fast, moving around. In the night skies over New Jersey. For nearly a month now. Sometimes, the lights go off. At least, that what some people think they see.
Are they drones, as many residents suspect? Are they manned commercial aircraft mistaken for drones, as federal officials say? New Jersey does have some of the busiest air space in the country. There’s Newark Liberty, JFK, LaGuardia. Dozens of small private jets zoom in and out of Teterboro and Morristown airports daily.
Or are they drones being released from an Iranian mothership off the Jersey Shore — as one New Jersey congressman suggested?
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The sightings occur only at night. And they haven’t dissipated. The mystery has understandably rattled some residents, sparked a Facebook page of folks who want to solve the case, prompted a North Jersey brewery to issue a new amber ale named Drone’s Ascent, and forced the FBI to investigate, the Pentagon to weigh in, Congress to hold a hearing and the White House to issue a statement.
It sounds like the plot of some wild Netflix series.
NorthJersey.com and the Daily Record have covered the mystery’s every twist and turn, talked to experts, explored the impact of social media and optical illusions, as well as the types of drones commercially available and how they are used, not to mention the long history of strange occurrences in the Garden State.
We’ve posted dozens of stories since Nov. 19, and now, we’ve brought them all here in one place for you. Here’s our complete coverage of North Jersey’s drone saga, including a timeline and interactive map.
The FBI said it has compared the flight patterns of the region’s three major commercial airports — Newark Liberty, JFK and LaGuardia — to the locations of reported drone sightings, and they match up in most cases. So most sightings of aircraft were mistaken for drones.
President-elect Donald Trump pushed for the government to release information about the reported drone sightings in a post on Truth Social early Friday evening. “Let the public know, and now. Otherwise, shoot them down!!!,” Trump posted.
The Pequannock Township Police Department, Morris County Sheriff’s Office, and Morris County Prosecutor’s Office responded to the scene to assess the situation. Investigators determined the device was a hobby or toy drone, not a commercial or military-grade model.
In recent years, drones have become increasingly popular amongst the general public across various hobbies and industries from filmmaking and photography to real estate, construction, emergency response, disaster relief and more.
The ongoing reports of alleged drones flying over New Jersey nightly earned the bizarre phenomenon a spot on Comedy Central’s “The Daily Show” Thursday night.
Here’s NorthJersey.com’s timeline of purported drone-related events from the initial sightings and county investigations to the most recent statements released by law enforcement, state and federal officials.
How do you tell the difference between a drone and a plane? Or, this weekend are you seeing one of the strongest, brightest and most active meteor showers of the year: the Geminid? Here’s everything you need to know and watch for.
It appears that statements from the FBI, the Department of Homeland Security and the White House have done little to dissuade New Jersey residents from taking to social media to report and discuss the alleged drones that have been reportedly hovering in the night sky in recent weeks.
A drone was used by first responders to look through brush under high tension electrical towers for reported remnants of a drone that supposedly crashed last night, adjacent to a Lowe’s parking lot on Rt 206 in Hillsborough.
NJ has hosted steered flying objects in its skies since 1863. For generations, New Jersey has played host to stories of the strange and the surreal, including Martian invasions and ghostly treasure guardians.
“This is not the work of a backyard hobbyist,” Congressman Jeff Van Drew (R-District 2) said in an over four-minute video posted to his YouTube account. He said his information comes from “high-level, credible sources.” “Drones are flying into the United State air space. Coming in and out of international waters,” said Van Drew, claiming that drones are avoiding our radar and being “expertly piloted.”
There is no evidence that reported drone sightings in New Jersey pose a national security or public safety threat, White House national security communications advisor John Kirby said on Thursday.
In addition to spooking people who spotted them buzzing and blinking through the New Jersey night sky over the past month, supposed sightings of mysterious unmanned drones have made the state’s political leaders edgy. They find themselves in the last place they want to be: unable to provide a reassuring answer to a perplexed public.
Gov. Murphy, enough is enough. It’s time to come clean on the drones. Rightly or wrongly, speculation has reached a fever pitch in New Jersey. Social media and cable news are aflame with reports of drones over military bases and sightings over reservoirs, car-sized drones, truck-sized drones, “Iranian motherships” full of drones. It’s time to take a page from your early COVID days and hold a televised news conference with the experts
Rep. Mikie Sherrill (D-NJ), who represents much of the county where New Jersey’s drone mystery began, has joined a chorus of Congress members demanding federal intervention to ground the unidentified evening flights that have caused anxiety, panic and rampant speculation.
Weeks of alleged drone sightings in New Jersey has seemingly left residents with more questions than answers. That includes a lack of answers provided by the FBI, who are currently investigating the drone sighting and assisting local law enforcement in their investigation as well.
On Fox News Wednesday morning, Congressman Jeff Van Drew said, “Iran launched a mothership probably about a month ago that contains these drones. That mothership, I’m going to tell you the deal, it’s off the East Coast of the United States of America. They’ve launched drones.”
Tens of thousands of online amateur sleuths have set social media ablaze as they race to find the source of mysterious drones that have reportedly amassed New Jersey skies in recent weeks. The Facebook group “New Jersey Drones — let’s solve it.” has quickly garnered membership.
“Drone” is a loaded word. It has unsettling associations with the military, with the insect kingdom, with some bad human traits. If it hasn’t added to the present tension, it certainly hasn’t helped to ease it.
Police in Morris County dispelled rumors of an alleged drone sighting in the area Tuesday night, saying the scene was the result of damage from a car crash.
Drone’s Descent, a 5.9% ABV amber ale, is the newest beer unveiled this week by Diamond Spring Brewing Company as a nod to the recent reported drone sightings throughout New Jersey.
Diamond Spring Brewing Company in Denville officially announced its newest beer, Drone’s Descent, in social media posts. The amber ale was inspired by what the brewery cheekily called “recent events.”
Mayor Sam Morris discusses alleged drones
Mine Hill Mayor Sam Morris shot video of what he believes to be drones above his Morris County town on Dec. 4. Take a look.
Picatinny, where some of the initial reports of unusual drone activity began last month, has recorded 11 confirmed sightings over the facility since Nov. 13 and seven reports that either could not confirmed or turned out to be airplanes, Lt. Col. Craig Bonham II said in a news release. “While the source and cause of these aircraft operating in our area remain unknown, we can confirm that they are not the result of any Picatinny Arsenal-related activities,” he said.
How many of these sightings are mistakes? Could some of the drone-mania that has gripped the state over the last few weeks be due to simple errors of vision, mistaken identity, optical illusion? And if this is all some kind of vast, clandestine surveillance operation — as some suggested — why do these things fly only at night? And why would they make themselves so easily seen with those flashing lights?
In the midst of mysterious drone sightings that have blanketed New Jersey in recent weeks, Rep. Josh Gottheimer has introduced federal legislation to allow state and local law enforcement to monitor and be “regularly on top of” drone use in the future.
At a hearing, U.S. Rep. Tony Gonzalez (R-Texas), asked, “You’re telling me we don’t know what the hell these drones in New Jersey are?” Robert Wheeler Jr., assistant director of the Critical Incident Response Group for the FBI, replied, “That’s correct.” Gonzalez said, “That’s crazy. That’s madness.”
Sen. Doug Steinhardt sent a letter to state Assembly Speaker Craig Coughlin and Senate President Nicholas Scutari on Friday, calling on them to take action by convening a bipartisan panel to address the situation. And Assemblymen John DiMaio and Erik Peterson sent a letter to Gov. Phil Murphy, calling on him to “take immediate action and address growing concerns over unexplained drone activity.”
Mysterious drones that have taken to New Jersey skies for weeks are sophisticated enough to “go dark” once they are spotted, Gov. Phil Murphy said. “This is something we’re taking deadly seriously,” Murphy said over the rising fears among some residents, adding that while there has been “good cooperation out of the feds,” he is pleading for more.
Morris County mayors and other local elected officials are demanding answers and action by authorities concerning the multiple sightings of drones in North Jersey. A letter signed by 19 elected officials says agencies have taken “a reactive instead of proactive approach” to the issue.
Where’s the frenzy coming from? Many North Jersey residents are looking at the sky and seeing lights that sincerely unnerve them. But psychologists and social scientists say there are other factors that have to be taken into account: our human tendencies to follow a crowd and social media’s ability to amplify fears and narratives.
Gov. Phil Murphy convened a briefing with Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, senior officials from the Department of Homeland Security, the New Jersey Office of Homeland Security and Preparedness, and New Jersey State Police to discuss the situation. Members of New Jersey’s congressional delegation also participated.
This interactive map shows where drones have allegedly been spotted in North and Central Jersey.
Reported sightings of the unusual activity have been seen as far west as High Point Monument in Sussex County and across North Jersey toward Garfield in Bergen County. In Central Jersey, many residents have reported suspicious activity in the skies from as far south as Delaware Township in Hunterdon County and west across Somerset County.
From the everyday flying toy to a hobbyist’s $300 drone or a professional’s $10,000 quadcopter to the military’s own remotely piloted aircraft drones, worth well over $56 million each, let’s take a look at what may just be those bright, “car-sized” objects that appear to rise in the skies as the sun sets.
The latest reports are emerging out of Sussex County, with multiple users in a Sparta Facebook group alleging they saw drones flying through the town. The FBI reported that it was investigating a “possible fixed-wing aircraft” flying along the Raritan River.
NorthJersey.com asked two of its own multimedia journalists, both with extensive experience piloting drones, what they think of the situation. Contrary to the prevailing opinions across social media, they are skeptical that what they are seeing are, in fact, drones.
The Federal Aviation Administration issued temporary flight restrictions last month prohibiting drone flights over Trump National and the Picatinny Arsenal military research and manufacturing facility in Morris County. The move came “at the request of federal security partners,” the FAA said.
“I could see five of them” on Sunday night from the backyard, said Jonelle Ferentinos, who lives less than a mile west of the reservoir in the Lake Intervale section of Parsippany. “It was dark, so I really couldn’t see where they were coming from or going to. They just seemed to be flying around.”
Recent drone sightings have also been reported in Warren County, according to Warren County Community College President William Austin, who also teaches drone piloting at the school. Austin, who has been flying drones for a decade, said he believes that because most drones contain a GPS identification chip, “It’s just a matter of time before someone figures out who it is. It’s like flying with LoJack.”
Various law enforcement agencies in Morris County are investigating reports of drones seen in the area that prompted rumors on social media. The county prosecutor’s office confirmed that officers on patrol observed drone activity, but there is no known threat to the public as a result of the sightings.
This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: Drones over New Jersey have locals on alert. See all info we gathered
