A terse announcement from White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt has apparently put the mystery of some 5,000 drone “sightings” to rest. She began a White House press conference with “news directly from the President of the United States that was just shared with me in the Oval Office.”
She continued, “After research and study, the drones that were flying over New Jersey in large numbers were authorized to be flown by the FAA for research and various other reasons. Many of these drones were also hobbyists, recreational and private individuals that enjoy flying drones,” she added. “In time, it got worse due to curiosity. This was not the enemy.”
Before Trump’s inauguration, the Biden administration released a December 16 multi-agency statement combining input from the Department of Homeland Security, the FBI, the FAA, and the Department of Defense. The statement asserted that actual drones flying over New Jersey consisted of a “combination” of non-nefarious lawful activity – and in many cases, misidentified conventional, crewed aircraft.
“Having closely examined the technical data and tips from concerned citizens,” the statement read, “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 stars mistakenly reported as drones.”
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