What we know about drone sightings
- Calls are growing for authorities to provide answers about a string of drone sightings in the sky in the Northeast over the last month.
- What seem to be drones have been appearing since at least Nov. 18. It is unclear who is operating them or why.
- Two men were arrested in Boston on charges of flying a drone "dangerously close" to Logan International Airport.
- New York Gov. Kathy Hochul said Friday that "this has gone too far" and called for federal assistance after drones shut down an airport in Orange County.
- The Defense Department has said that the drones are not owned by the military and that they are not coming from an Iranian "mothership" off the East Coast, as Rep. Jeff Van Drew, R-N.J., suggested.
FBI, DHS, FAA, White House hold briefing with New Jersey mayors
Representatives from the White House, the Department of Homeland Security, the FBI and the FAA briefed New Jersey mayors this afternoon, Middletown Mayor Tony Perry told NBC News.
Perry, who attended the briefing on Zoom, said that viewers weren’t able to see who else had logged on but that he communicated with several other mayors who confirmed they had also joined.
Although representatives from the agencies running the federal investigation were the ones leading the briefing, Perry said it was “a waste of time.”
“In all honesty, they provided us with no new additional info. In fact, it felt a little bit dismissive,” he said.
Perry said that at the meeting “rabbled endlessly” from the same piece of paper, downplaying that the drones pose any kind of threat.
“Until they can tell me where these drones are coming from, I do not subscribe to the idea that they're not a threat,” Perry said, adding that many of the drones his constituents have reported are too large and sophisticated to been flown by a hobbyist.
“Their dismissive attitude is really just the wrong message,” Perry said of the agencies. “It’s your responsibility to protect them. It’s your responsibility to ensure their safety, and to be so dismissive of it, it causes me concern, quite frankly.”
Perry added that it’s not the White House’s place to tell local officials not to worry.
“We’re the ones sitting here in our hometowns, at our town halls, watching these drones hover over our facilities, hover over our infrastructure, and it just seems like there was an absolute desire on behalf of the White House to just distance itself from any type of drone activity even taking place,” he said.
House Intelligence Committee to be briefed tomorrow
The House Intelligence Committee will get a briefing tomorrow afternoon on the recent drone sightings, two sources familiar with the planned meeting told NBC News.
Officials from the FBI, the CIA and the national intelligence director's office will provide the briefing at 2 p.m. in a secure House location where the committee regularly meets and receives briefings.
NYC Mayor Eric Adams says drone sightings are a 'big issue'
New York Mayor Eric Adams called the reported drone sightings “a big issue” at a news conference today.
Adams said he spoke with the NYPD's leadership this morning and yesterday to figure out how to “collaborate with New Jersey, Long Island and other parts of the city and country where the drones are being witnessed.”
“How do we have a cross-collaboration from everything? How do we take one down if we think it’s dangerous?” he asked.
He added that the “worst thing we can do” is to say “don’t worry about it ... it’s no big issue.”
He continued: “No, it is a big issue. If a bird strikes the engine of a plane, it can take down that plane. Same thing with a drone.”
He added, however, that the NYPD's deputy commissioner of intelligence and counterterrorism, Rebecca Weiner, said there are no safety threats from the drones spotted in New York City.
Nonetheless, Adams said he’s “taking this serious.”
“We want to make sure our skies are protected, and we don’t want anyone using drones that’s going to be harmful to the sensitive location and the safety of New Yorkers,” he said.
FAA warns of lasers aimed at pilots in New Jersey
Amid the wave of unidentified drone sightings across the Northeast, the FAA has issued a warning about multiple reports from pilots of lasers being pointed at planes in the airspace spanning New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania.
“Aiming a laser at an aircraft is a serious safety hazard and a violation of federal law,” the agency said in a statement yesterday.
Ken Dietz, a private pilot in New Jersey, told NBC News that a green light was pointed at his plane while he was flying over the weekend.
“I started seeing a green flash around the cockpit of the plane,” he said.
Dietz was flying his two-seater sports plane just east of Alexandria Field Airport on Saturday night when the unidentified green light appeared.
“They were definitely tracking me. It stayed on me for a period of time,” he said. He said he was doing pattern work, conducting low-altitude landing practice at and around the airport.
“It was a little disorienting at first,” Dietz said. He aborted his landing and circled the airport to land safely. He reported the incident to the FAA.
As calls for authorities to provide answers to the mysterious drone sightings grow, Dietz said he suspects the person who pointed the apparent laser was trying to point out a drone.
“People were assuming everything was a drone,” he said. “It’s definitely off-putting. You’re going along and everything’s going as expected, and then you get this strange thing happening.”
Drone recovered at Nantucket airport
A downed drone was recovered from Nantucket Memorial Airport yesterday morning, an airport spokesperson told NBC News today.
"The drone was discovered on an area of pavement reserved for the safe operation of aircraft," the airport said in a statement.
The incident was immediately reported to the FAA and the Transportation Security Administration and will be investigated, officials said.
The recovered drone is a “small multirotor drone” that can be easily purchased online and weighs less than 0.55 pounds. Officials said that if it is used recreationally, it may not require FAA registration.
While no flights have been affected at Nantucket airport, officials say drone operators “should avoid flying near airports and must receive an airspace authorization prior to operation.”
It is not yet clear who was operating the drone.
Trump says 'something strange is going on' with drones
President-elect Donald Trump talked about drones today at his news event at Mar-A-Lago, claiming the military and President Joe Biden know more than what they have led the public to believe.
"For some reason, they want to keep people in suspense," Trump said. "Something strange is going on. For some reason, they don’t want to tell the people, and they should."
Trump declined to comment on whether he has personally received an intelligence briefing.
New Jersey congressman says its time to track drones, launches tip line
Rep. Josh Gottheimer, D-N.J., urged federal agents to adopt an air traffic control system to track drones, saying, "Jersey, and our country, can't be the Wild West of drones."
"We need a proper system to track the activity. People shouldn't have to worry about what's overhead," Gottheimer told reporters today. "Again, not talking about small drones you get for Christmas and fly on the beach. I'm talking about large, record large drones that are unlicensed and unauthorized."
Gottheimer also said he has launched a tips page on his website "where people from New Jersey can share information on tips, on their latest drone sightings, again, in an organized matter and to help get to the bottom of this and communicate with the public."
He said it is "an insult to the American people" not to believe they are seeing drones and to downplay constituents' concerns. He called on the Department of Homeland Security, the FAA, the FBI and the Defense Department to start regular briefings on drones to communicate with the public.
"Is it possible that some of these sightings are airplanes or helicopters or enthusiasts putting up their drones to mess with other people?" Gottheimer said. "Sure. But what I find insulting is claiming to people that they're not seeing things that they're seeing with their own eyes. That just doesn't make any sense."
Federal officials step in as number of states reporting drone sightings grows
The federal government is deploying new resources to address the mysterious wave of drone encounters along the East Coast. Police say two men were arrested on suspicion of flying a drone dangerously close to Boston’s Logan airport. NBC News’ Tom Costello reports for "TODAY."
What happened when Britain had a mystery drone problem?
The spate of drone sightings in the Northeast might seem familiar to people across the Atlantic, who experienced a similar issue five years ago.
All flights were canceled at London Gatwick Airport for 36 hours in 2018, ruining Christmas travel plans for 120,000 travelers.
A series of drones were reportedly seen in the skies around the airport, 30 miles south of London in the county of Sussex, but no perpetrator or motive was found.
An Israel-developed radar system was brought in to tracks drones and jam signals from the operators, but to no avail. A 50,000 pound ($63,000) reward was offered for information leading to an arrest.
The subsequent investigation yielded such little hard evidence about the supposed drones that police admitted that those who reported seeing them in the first place may have been mistaken.
Mystery drones: Get a close-up look at an example of a large drone
As residents and local officials raise the alarm about increasing drone sightings on the East Coast, NBC News’ Tom Costello joins "TODAY" with a close-up look at a commercial-grade cinematography drone to see how big the aircraft can be and breaks down the different sizes and capabilities they can have.