The White House said on Monday that recent reports of drone sightings in the northeastern US, including New Jersey and New York, have been linked to commercial drones, amateur activity and even misidentified objects such as stars.
The FBI, Pentagon and Department of Homeland Security have deployed advanced radar systems to hunt for foreign reconnaissance drones amid reports of UAV sightings of unknown origin. But John Kirby, the White House’s strategic communications coordinator for the National Security Council, said only 100 of the more than 5,000 such reports that have been received in recent weeks have warranted further investigation.
Kirby said most of those cases are “a combination of commercial drones, amateur drones and law enforcement drones, as well as manned aircraft, helicopters and even stars that have been mistaken for drones.” He also added:
“Having closely examined the data, having closely looked at the tips and collated them as best we can from concerned citizens, 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.”
Kirby noted:
“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. The work continues. But I want to stress again: our assessment at this stage is that the activity represents commercial, hobbyist, or law enforcement drones, all operating legally and lawfully and or civilian aviation aircraft, as we continue to work through the leads that are out there.”
Kirby also said that there are more than 1 million drones registered with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and thousands of commercial, hobbyist and law enforcement drones are operating legally across the US.
