Conquer Club

What's New
The White House on Monday put out its most detailed statement yet on a flurry of drone sightings that have been reported across the Northeast in recent weeks.

"We assess that the sightings to date include a combination of lawful commercial drones, hobbyist drones and law enforcement drones, as well as manned fixed-wing aircraft, helicopters and even stars that were mistakenly reported as drones," John Kirby, the National Security Council spokesperson, told reporters Monday.

"We have not identified anything anomalous or any national security or public safety risk over the civilian airspace in New Jersey or other states in the Northeast," he added. "The work continues."

Why It Matters
Federal and local officials have been confounded over reports of drone sightings in New Jersey and other parts of the Northeast that started about a month ago.

Kirby's statement on Monday appeared to shed the most light on the issue to date, but it also made clear that officials are still examining it and more details about the aircraft could spill out in the coming weeks.

What To Know
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the FBI released a joint statement last week saying they had no indication "at this time that the reported drone sightings pose a national security or public safety threat or have a foreign nexus."

They added, however, that "while there is no known malicious activity occurring in New Jersey, the reported sightings there do...highlight the insufficiency of current authorities."

Trump reiterated his comments on Monday, telling reporters at Mar-a-Lago that if a foreign adversary were responsible for the drone activity, the White House would have "blasted" out the news.

Even if they were late, they'd blast it," he said. "Something strange is going on. For some reason, they don't want to tell the people."

The mysterious drones were initially spotted over New Jersey last month. But in the weeks since, residents in Ohio, Florida, Massachusetts, California, Pennsylvania and New York have also reported seeing drones flying overhead.

jusplay4fun wrote:And where is our President? Biden?

Dukasaur wrote:This really is a new instance of UFOmania.

So, some people are flying drones. It's not illegal. Others, are just aircraft in the distance, or stars, or balloons. The Air Force has professional PR people trained to go calm down irrational idiots who think a Cessna in the distance is the harbinger of alien invasion. I don't think the President needs to get personally involved.

saxitoxin wrote:

Dukasaur wrote:This really is a new instance of UFOmania.

So, some people are flying drones. It's not illegal. Others, are just aircraft in the distance, or stars, or balloons. The Air Force has professional PR people trained to go calm down irrational idiots who think a Cessna in the distance is the harbinger of alien invasion. I don't think the President needs to get personally involved.

saxi and duk agree?

Dukasaur wrote:

jusplay4fun wrote:And where is our President? Biden?

What, the President is supposed to go out and personally search for UFOs? I really think he has better things to do.

This really is a new instance of UFOmania.

So, some people are flying drones. It's not illegal. Others, are just aircraft in the distance, or stars, or balloons. The Air Force has professional PR people trained to go calm down irrational idiots who think a Cessna in the distance is the harbinger of alien invasion. I don't think the President needs to get personally involved.

Mayorkas said officials have deployed extra resources to look into the sightings and will let the public know if there is reason for concern—“we are on it,” he said—but so far, there’s no indication of foreign involvement.

In a similar vein, an unnamed FBI official said in a White House briefing fewer than 100 of the agency’s 5,000 tips on drone sightings have been worthy of further investigation, and modeling shows many of the sightings have taken place in the flight paths of major airports, suggesting people could be mistaking planes for drones.

Still, the uptick in reported drone sightings has caused concern across several states, with social media users posting videos of lit objects hovering in the sky at night, and state officials asking the federal government for clarity.