Mysterious New Jersey drone sightings prompt call for 'state of emergency'

It was a massive media event, camera crews from every outlet were at the airport, but none ever photographed a drone. None of the radar systems at the airport, nor the military anti-drone systems sent later on, ever picked up anything.

In this article, a professional drone photographer describes mistaking a helicopter for a drone:

> But when he opened up the image on his computer, ready to send to his editors, he realised he’d made a mistake. The image did not show a drone. It was a helicopter hovering 10 miles away; between the darkness and the distance, his eyes had played a trick on him. “If I’m making a mistake – and I fly drones two or three times a week – then God help us, because others will have no idea,” he said. He called police to retract his reported sighting.

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2020/dec/01/the-mystery-...

Politicians are PO'd that something about this doesn't add up: How can anyone know these aren't a threat without knowing whose they are? Why isn't anyone bringing them down? Where do they land? Is this similar to the Chinese spy balloon?

I've seen a huge number of theories by now, and not one of them actually fits.

https://www.app.com/story/news/local/new-jersey/2024/12/11/d...

If the drones were legit they would be broadcasting their ID as would the controllers and they would be within visible range unless they have the approved part 107 on file or part 107 waiver and approval for long range drone usage.

If these are not really drones and it is just mass hysteria the national guard would rule that out rather fast. As a bonus there is no added cost to the tax payer aside from the small fuel expense to route around the TFR which pilots are accustom to. This is just swapping out one training exercise with another.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/Lwfn134LqdEp6xbG9

To clarify some common logical issues I see spread across dozens of responses in this thread:

Drones != Quadcopters

Drones COULD use a housing to mimics common aircraft or helicopters.

The military and FBI do not commonly monitor ALL airspace at all times beyond air-traffic radar.

The government is not a hive-mind and individuals only know what they know despite the fact the are asked to make statements.

But if there isn't, telling people that there's been some strange lights in the sky is a pretty good way to get people to look up at night and receive even more reports about just that.

This is honestly terrifying, because it's baffling people can't determine what is generally regular aircraft (some of these videos are SO obviously planes coming in for a landing, with jet engine noises and all) and the other is that eventually some nut is going to open fire on a commercial airliner just coming in for a landing because they think it's China or aliens or something. That won't take down the plane but could hit someone inside. People need to chill.

I think drones are a new threat for various reasons (look at Ukrainian war footage, it's absolutely terrifying) but while I'm sure there were -some- drones, probably a mix between government and hobbyist...uh, the overreaction to it is seriously worrying. The US is turning into a land of paranoia.

Side note, it's very difficult to determine the size and altitude of something even in the daytime, so at night it's even harder. These "car sized" drones could literally just be the size of a larger DJI drone. The media and government officials feeding into this is bad.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mystery_airship

https://cdn.centerforinquiry.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/29...

Noticed it because of the typo ("spy-ballon") but realized it's also a pretty funny phrase.

Are we living in a spy-balloon world which is no longer Chinese?

Or maybe in a balloon-world, post the Chinese spy?

The drones have been appearing very consistently, if there were the slightest concern of foreign military drones, then military jets would have been scrambled to intercept - there have been no such reports.

My guess is a US company is gathering data and hasn’t admitted to do so without some type of licensing/etc

My spouse and I have seen these things flying for __years__ around the northern Baltimore area. They even had patterns.

Recently, we have been hearing what sound like Apache helicopters at around the same time at night.

This video in this article: https://apnews.com/article/fbi-drones-new-jersey-a978470fa3b...

Is 100% __identical__ to what we have been seeing for literal years, at least 5.

I don't know if this is anything nefarious or not, but I would note that being suspicious of these things is often a good thing, not a bad thing.

Even Michael Shermer, the famed skeptic, wrote a book on how suspecting conspiracy is often a valid default stance. Abstract from his book:

"One reason that people believe these conspiracies, Shermer argues, is that enough of them are real that we should be constructively conspiratorial: elections have been rigged (LBJ's 1948 Senate race); medical professionals have intentionally harmed patients in their care (Tuskegee); your government does lie to you (Watergate, Iran-Contra, and Afghanistan)"

There are obviously people that always suspect conspiracy, and that's not good. But it's equally not good to always suspect a benign explanation, which is the majority of this thread.

Just adding a different perspective to this community.

Unsubstantiated theory, but maybe a foreign adversary scanning ground for targets? Critical east coast transmission lines and substations in NJ possibly a target?

[1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/2023_Chinese_balloon_inciden...

It's just laying the ground work for some insidious nonsense.

Consumer drones have collision lights that look all fancy. They are also in the FAA jurisdiction so there's nothing the locals can do to stop it because it's not something they deal with, even if flying at night is illegal for non commercially licenced UAV operators.

If it's a secret drone then it doesn't have collision lights. If it doesn't have lights you can't see it at night.

Even after watching the videos I think you can figure this out a priori without the videos - drones exist and people have them, lots of them.

Secret Service will deploy drones to watch Trump during golfing vacation

The Guardian in 2024 (this submission):

Concerns have focused on drones spotted near the Bedminster golf course of president-elect Donald Trump, as well as sensitive infrastructure including electric transmission sights, rail stations and police departments.

After the Butler assassination attempt, there have been numerous criticisms that the FBI did not use surveillance drones on the site. I would not be surprised if 50% of drone sightings are government surveillance drones and the rest are just hobbyist photographers etc.

It appears a few clowns are illegally flying something similar in the US air space, and over populated areas (FAA will hit hard on this point.)

That odd looking air-frame design is very similar, and a simple phone call may put the drama to rest. =3

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pivotal_BlackFly

These should be called UFOs, not drones. The light on them and their shape make them look like regular drones, but I think these crafts are much more than the regular drones that the media has called them.

they used the footage to solve some cartel murder by playing the footage in reverse to track the origin of the killers

1: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Lowrider

Also iirc there is a funding bill for anti-drone programs gummed up in congress so I am sure anyone looking to get it passed isn't in a rush to quell this just yet.

The government will finally get all these local yokel politicians to put a cork in it and stop fanning hysteria when some idiot puts a bullet hole in a cessna thinking it is an Iranian drone from a mothership off the east coast.

The CIA vs Pentagon vs FBI vs whatever else natsec department that was once set up for a singular purpose before expanding scope into everything else.

There isn't a central controller seeing everything - just a President (whoever that is) sitting on top of a herd of out-of-control broncos desperately trying not to fall off. These drones are almost certainly US origin, but the departments don't talk to each other, so when one says they don't know anything about it, I'm inclined to believe that it is actually the case

But ... what if Aliens and Ghosts are the same thing? DaDaDa!

Also I learned from the a recent JRE with Marc Andressen that the US really doesn’t make consumer drones domestically because of regulations but China is allowed to import them here. But still not to say someone isn’t making them at home on their own.

It's some kind of trick that an unknown entity plays on people. Like Bigfoot, lochness monster etc. It's possible the drones don't physically exist. Yet we can see and hear them.

The government might know this. Hence lack of response

They could run completely blacked out and it would make no difference to the operator.

Link - https://www.twz.com/air/militarys-recently-deployed-ufo-hunt...

https://x.com/rawsalerts/status/1858717730746126444

There is zero evidence to support any of the claims made in this post, and it seems to have spread virally from here. It appears that rawsalerts posts disinformation and then it is disseminated through a massive network of fake news sites and fake social media accounts. Just do a google search for "rawsalerts" to see what I mean. It looks like much of its content is constantly reposted by NewsBreak, which has been noted as a disinformation/fake news site set up by China.

https://www.reuters.com/technology/top-news-app-us-has-chine...

Starting to get the idea? I believe this was a case of mass hysteria that was literally engineered by one of our enemies.

Wouldn't this only maybe prevent the mystery from being solved? By preventing further sightings?

I imagine part of a training exercise could be to learn how local authorities respond to such aircraft activity. If you see what the Ukrainians have been able to accomplish using this type of tech (with a lot of cottage-industry DIY-type contributions) in an active theatre of war, it should give you pause.

Everyone else did. How else would you explain 65,536 probes evenly dispersed along a lat-long grid that barely left any square meter of planetary surface unexposed? Obviously the Flies had taken our picture. The whole world had been caught with its pants down in panoramic composite freeze-frame. We'd been surveyed—whether as a prelude to formal introductions or outright invasion was anyone's guess.

If the lights on the things are blinking, I have a possible explanation for the erratic motion.

I've found that if I'm in a dark place with a green LED that is blinking and there is not enough light to see anything but the LED then the LED appears to jump around erratically.

I'll see it come on and go off and I'm sure that I am continuing to stare at the now off LED but when it comes on it is somewhere else. If I'm about 40 cm from the LED it can appear to have jumped up to maybe 15-20 cm.

It can be quite disconcerting if there is a series of apparent jumps in the same direction, because each time I have to move my eyes/head in the same direction to recenter the LED, and after 4 or 5 jumps it feels like I should be turned significantly but I can tell that I'm actually still looking mostly straight ahead.

If I arrange for their to be some faint light in the closet so that I can see even hints of the other things in there when the LED is off then I can actually keep staring at the LED's position.

I believe this phenomenon is due to saccades [1]. Our eyes normally jump around randomly when we are looking at things. We can override that and force ourselves to stare at a point. My guess is that we need some reference in the field of view to focus our attention on to be able to do an override.

I'd guess that this same effect could happen with a blinking object in a dark sky.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saccade

In short, they’re at a total loss on how to respond to this phenomenon, because the answer opens a big ol’ can of worms, or Pandora’s Box, or pick your metaphor.

FWIW, the “drones” (they’re not drones though some present as such) are the opposite of a threat. They’re here to help, if they’d be allowed to. Can’t wait to hear the justification for why they haven’t been allowed to. grabs popcorn

So yes, they are drones but maybe this is only one standard deviation from normal? Many non-military people own drones.

Let's keep the citizens starting at the night sky and scratching their head.

It happened right after election. If they few in the day time, it would be easy to find out they are military test drones. The citizens wouldn't be as distracted.

Iran doesn't really have any military projection. It can't even move equipment and people into countries it's close to (Syria, Iraq), let alone the US. Why would they take the risk of doing this? It's obviously bullshit.

They look like airliners, drones, and helicopters depending on when you see them. They are large, noisy, and carry FAA compliant lights.

They aren’t secret, per se, but the military is more interested in understanding the perception of their use than it is in sharing exactly what it is they are up to, as usual.

This is a gigantic nothing burger.

It's quite possible their only task is to fly around and make sure people see them, as a form of less violent terrorism that rather counts on news channels and social media to spread fear.

Mustn't have the latest cellphone? I hear smart phones have cameras. They sound as good with technology as HN commentators.

I'm actually loathe to spoil it in case they're doing this as a prank (and they definitely are) because it's such a genius fucking way to throw a whole nation into full UFO panic for a few hundred bucks, and very easy to do completely undetected. (No, not drones)

I bet I'm not the only one who figured it out, especially on here.

A lot of people in power seem to be panicking because so many international conflicts are dying down in recent months. After a Ukraine-Russia ceasefire how is the military industrial complex going to sustain itself? We need a new boogeyman, asap.