A number of mysterious drones have been reported flying over Massachusetts and across the eastern U.S., sparking speculation and concern over where they came from and why.
The FBI, the Homeland Security Department and state agencies have been investigating, but officials say there has been nothing so far to suggestthat any drones have posed a national security or public safety threat. In fact, authorities say, many of the drone sightings have actually been legal drones, manned aircraft, helicopters and even stars.
President Joe Biden said Tuesday night that there appears to be nothing nefarious about the flying objects.
“There are a lot of drones authorized. We are following this closely. So far no sense of danger,” the Democrat said as he left the White House for a trip to Delaware.
Despite federal officials' comments, many state and municipal lawmakers have nonetheless called for stricter rules about who can fly unmanned aircraft — and for the authority to shoot them out of the sky.
The House Intelligence Committee grilled federal law enforcement and intelligence officials about the drones during a closed-door meeting Tuesday, Democratic U.S. Rep. Jim Himes of Connecticut told CNN. Authorities told the panel there still is no evidence that drones are posing dangers, Himes said.
What has been seen in Massachusetts and New Hampshire?
Local
A resident of the Cape Cod town of Harwich, Massachsuetts, called police Thursday reporting that she saw betwen 10 and 15 drones flying overhead around 9 p.m. She said they were there for over an hour. The woman said she couldn't hear the drones, but they were very bright.
The police department sent out a release to let people know about the situation, and an off-duty officer with the department "noticed similar drone activity near the Public Safety Complex on Sisson Road." The department said it shared the information with the FBI's Boston Field Office and the Massachusetts State Police, adding that it would continue to work with the agencies.
And earlier this week, two people were arrested in Boston for flying a drone too close to Logan Airport and a drone was found at an airfield at the Nantucket Memorial Airport.
Gov. Maura Healey spoke about the recent phenomenon of mysterious drone sightings over Massachusetts and other parts of the northeast at a media availability on Tuesday.
"In terms of what we're seeing up and down the East Coast, it's concerning," Healey said. "I've spoken out, along with the governors of New Jersey and New York. We've not seen the volume New York and New Jersey have seen. I am not aware of, I can say right now there is no ongoing public safety threat to Massachusetts."
More than 150 miles away in Barrington, New Hampshire, another family caught a similar sight on camera.
“We never thought we would see it on our backyard" said Norma Boyd of Barrington.
Similar sightings have also been reported in Maine and Connecticut.
But do the drones pose a threat?
The growing anxiety among some residents is not lost on the Biden administration, which has faced criticism from Trump for not dealing with the matter more aggressively.
White House national security spokesperson John Kirby said Monday that the federal government has yet to identify any public safety or national security risks.
“There are more than 1 million drones that are lawfully registered with the Federal Aviation Administration here in the United States,” Kirby said. “And there are thousands of commercial, hobbyist and law enforcement drones that are lawfully in the sky on any given day. That is the ecosystem that we are dealing with.”
The federal government has deployed personnel and advanced technology to investigate the reports in New Jersey and other states, and is evaluating each tip reported by citizens, he said.
About 100 of the more than 5,000 drone sightings reported to the FBI in recent weeks were deemed credible enough to warrant more investigation, according to a joint statement by the Department of Homeland Security, FBI, Federal Aviation Administration and Department of Defense.
Who is operating the drones?
Speculation has raged online, with some expressing concerns that the drones could be part of a nefarious plot by foreign agents or clandestine operations by the U.S. government.
Pentagon spokesperson Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder said it's unlikely the drones are engaged in intelligence gathering, given how loud and bright they are. And he repeated Tuesday that the drones being reported are not being operated by the Department of Defense.
Asked whether military contractors might be operating drones in the New Jersey area, Ryder rebuffed the notion, saying there are “no military operations, no military drone or experiment operations in this corridor.”
Ryder said additional drone-detecting technology was being moved to some military installations, including the Picatinny Arsenal in New Jersey.
Drone activity in the past week led to an hourlong closure of runways at New York’s Stewart International Airport, about 60 miles north of Manhattan, a four-hour closure of air space around Wright-Patterson Air Force Base near Dayton, Ohio, and the arrests of two men in Boston accused by police of flying a drone too close to Logan International Airport.
Officials urge action against the drones
Trump has said he believes the government knows more than it’s saying.
“Let the public know, and now. Otherwise, shoot them down!!!” he posted on Truth Social.
U.S. Sen. Andy Kim, a New Jersey Democrat, said he has heard nothing to support the notion that the government is hiding anything. He said a lack of faith in institutions is playing a key part in the saga.
“Nothing that I’m seeing, nothing that I’ve engaged in gives me any impression of that nature. But like, I get it, some people won’t believe me, right? Because that’s the level of distrust that we face," Kim said Monday.
Democratic Sen. Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut last week called for the drones to be “shot down."
In her remarks Tuesday, Healey urged Congress to take action on the matter, both to change the law to allow states to investigate and prosecutor illegal drone activity and to provide more resources in the form of better technology capable of detecting drones.
"I think that's going to be very important," Healey said. "The pace of technology has really evolved very quickly, and it's a serious concern and one that I take very seriously as governor."
Contributing to this report were Associated Press writers Michael Casey in Boston; John Seewer in Toledo, Ohio; Dave Collins in Hartford, Connecticut; Tara Copp in Washington; and Bruce Schreiner in Shelbyville, Kentucky.
