Drones, planes or UFOs? Mysterious sightings in New Jersey cause a stir

That buzzing noise you hear in New Jersey? It’s not clear if they are drones or something else, but the nighttime sightings are definitely generating a lot of buzz, conspiracy theories, and craning necks looking up at the sky.

After reports first emerged on local news and social media sites around Thanksgiving, the drone saga over New Jersey has reached incredible heights.

This week a new chapter of greater significance seems to have begun: legislators are demanding explanations from federal and state authorities about what is behind them, although they have not received a response.

Governor Phil Murphy wrote to President Joe Biden asking for answers. New Jersey’s new senator, Andy Kim, spent Thursday night on a drone hunt in rural northern New Jersey and posted about it on X.

But perhaps most fantastic is the dizzying proliferation of conspiracies, none of which have been confirmed or raised by federal and state officials who say they are investigating what is happening. It has become common to refer to flying machines as drones, but there are questions about whether what people are seeing are unmanned aircraft or something else.

Some theorize that the drones came from an Iranian mothership. Others think they are from the Secret Service guarding President-elect Donald Trump’s property in Bedminster. There are those who worry about China, the deep state, and other possibilities.

Faced with uncertainty, people have done what they do in 2024: create a group on social networks.

A Facebook page called “New Jersey Mystery Drones — let’s solve it” has nearly 44,000 members. People are posting their photos and videos of sightings, and online commentators are taking their cues from there.

A video shows a whitish light flying in a dark sky, and one commentator concludes that it is otherworldly. “Clear orbs,” the person says. Others chime in to say it’s a plane or maybe a satellite. Another group called to literally hunt down the drones, to shoot them down like turkeys. (Don’t shoot at anything in the sky, experts warn.)

Trisha Bushey, 48, of Lebanon Township, New Jersey, lives near Round Valley Reservoir where there have been numerous sightings. He said he posted photos online last month wondering what the objects were, and became convinced they were drones when he saw how they moved and when his son showed him on a flight-tracking site that there were no planes around. It’s now glued to the Mystery Drones page, he said.

“Instead of buying Christmas gifts or cleaning my house, I spend my time going through it,” she said.

She doesn’t believe what the governor said, that drones are not a risk to public safety. Murphy told Biden on Friday that residents need answers. The federal Department of Homeland Security and the FBI also said in a joint statement that they have no evidence that the sightings represent “a threat to national or public security or have a foreign nexus.”

“How can you say it’s not a threat if you don’t know what it is?” Bushey questioned. “I think that’s why so many people are uneasy.”

Then there’s the notion that people might misinterpret what they’re seeing. William Austin is the president of Warren County College, which has a study program in drone technology and is coincidentally located at one of the sighting sites.

Austin says he has seen videos of alleged drones and that people see airplanes but mistakenly classify them as drones. He cited an optical effect called parallax, which is the apparent change of an object when viewed from different perspectives. Austin encouraged people to download flight and drone tracking apps so they can better understand what they are seeing.

However, people continue to formulate their own theories.

“It’s representative of the America of 2024,” Austin said. “We have lost trust in our institutions, and we need it.”

Federal officials agree with Austin’s view that many of the sightings are piloted aircraft, such as planes and helicopters that are being mistaken for drones, according to lawmakers and Murphy.

But that doesn’t really convince many who are focusing on sightings beyond New Jersey and the East Coast, where others have reported seeing the objects.

For Seph Divine, 34, who is a member of the Eugene, Oregon, drone hunting group, it feels like it’s up to citizen detectives to solve the mystery. He said he tries to be a voice of reason, encouraging people to verify their information, while also asking pointed questions.

“My main goal is that I don’t want people to get carried away with hysteria and at the same time I don’t want them to just ignore it,” he said.

“Whether it’s a foreign military or some secret access program or something otherworldly, whatever, what I’m saying is that it’s alarming that this is happening so suddenly and so constantly for so many hours,” he added.

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