By Alyce McFadden
Bright lights floating or flying in the night sky above New Jersey have captivated residents for nearly a month. Now the sightings — some of which are of drones, federal officials said — have spread throughout the region.
For weeks, federal authorities investigating the sightings have provided few answers about what the objects are or their origin, leaving residents unsettled and local leaders frustrated.
Alejandro Mayorkas, head of the Department of Homeland Security, confirmed in an interview with ABC News on Sunday “that there’s no question that drones are being sighted.”
Mayorkas said the Federal Aviation Administration changed its rules last year so that drones could fly at night — a possible reason, he said, for the recent uptick in sightings along the East Coast.
He did not offer any other details as to who might be flying the drones or where they are coming from, but he said that the federal government would help the New Jersey State Police respond to the sightings.
Assurances from state and federal officials that the sightings do not indicate a threat to residents have done little to allay public concerns. Lawmakers have expressed frustration with the lack of information, and are urging the federal government to share more about its investigation.
President-elect Donald Trump has also weighed in, suggesting that the government was concealing information about the sightings. “Otherwise, shoot them down!!!” he posted on his Truth Social platform.
Here’s what to know about the flying objects:
What are they?
Pictures and videos of the purported drones show bright objects illuminated against a dark night sky. Some move, and others appear to hover in place. Residents and law enforcement officers who have observed the objects say that their lights sometimes go out suddenly, enveloping them in darkness.
Facebook groups and Reddit threads dedicated to the sightings have accumulated thousands of posts. One Facebook group has tens of thousands of members who share videos and swap theories.
On Thursday, the mystery made its way to the White House, where a spokesperson for the National Security Council, John Kirby, said at a news conference that federal investigators had been unable to corroborate reports of any unauthorized drones above New Jersey.
“To the contrary, upon review of available imagery, it appears that many of the reported sightings are actually manned aircraft that are being operated lawfully,” Kirby said.
Officials with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and the FBI said they had cross-referenced the reported sightings with flight paths related to Kennedy, LaGuardia and Newark Liberty airports, and concluded that many of the observed objects were actually planes taking off or landing.
At a press briefing last week, Sabrina Singh, a spokesperson for the Pentagon, said that the reported objects were not drones operated by the U.S. military and that officials did not believe they were “coming from a foreign entity or adversary.” Local officials and residents have expressed their frustration with federal authorities and the little information they’ve provided publicly so far.
Rep. Chris Smith, R-N.J., said in a statement Friday that the White House’s attitude toward the sightings had been “dismissive.”
“The Biden administration has an obligation to the American people to figure out and tell us what is going on immediately,” Smith added.
When did the sightings start and where are they occurring?
The wave of sightings began in northern New Jersey in mid-November after personnel inside the Picatinny Arsenal, an Army facility in Morris County, spotted what they said was a drone flying near the base. Days later, reports of the sightings began pouring into the New Jersey State Police, according to a letter with Thursday’s date that the state’s governor, Phil Murphy, sent to President Joe Biden and posted on social media.
The initial sightings were clustered in a few counties in northern New Jersey, but the phenomenon quickly spread across the state, including to coastal areas in the south and to the Philadelphia suburbs.
In early December, drone sightings were also reported in parts of New York City, first along Staten Island’s west shore, then in southern Brooklyn near the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge. On Thursday, sightings were reported in the Bronx and near LaGuardia Airport in Queens.
The next evening, New York Mayor Eric Adams wrote on social media that he was “aware of concerns” about the sightings and that city officials were investigating them with federal and state agencies.
Residents in parts of upstate New York have also reported mysterious sightings at night. On Friday evening, reports of drone activity near New York Stewart International Airport in New Windsor caused the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey to shut down runways there for about an hour, said Lenis Valens, an authority spokesperson.
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul said last week that the objects did not pose a threat to public safety and that she was investigating the matter with federal law enforcement agencies.
Other sightings have been reported in Connecticut, Pennsylvania and Maryland, where Larry Hogan, the state’s former governor, said on social media that he had seen “what appeared to be dozens of large drones in the sky” above his home in Davidsonville, Maryland.
The post included comments from readers that at least some of the lights Hogan had captured on video were the constellation Orion.
How are the sightings being investigated?
Kirby said Thursday that federal authorities had conducted a “thorough analysis” of pictures and videos and were using “very sophisticated electronic detection technologies” to try to determine what the objects were.
The FBI has been investigating the sightings since late November, and its Newark, New Jersey, field office has urged residents to report relevant information to the agency’s tip line. Since the line was opened Dec. 3, the bureau has received approximately 5,000 tips, according to an FBI official who briefed reporters on the condition of anonymity Saturday because the official was not authorized to speak publicly. Of those, the official said, less than 100 have been deemed credible enough to warrant additional inquiry.
On Thursday night, Sen. Andy Kim, D-N.J., accompanied local law enforcement officers who were looking into sightings near the Round Valley Reservoir in Hunterdon County. In a series of social media posts, Kim said he saw several objects in the sky that did not appear on flight tracking software.
However, on Saturday, Kim said in additional social media posts that he had “concluded that most of the possible drone sightings that were pointed out to me were almost certainly planes.”
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