A United States senator called for mysterious drones that have been spotted flying over sensitive areas of New Jersey and other parts of the Mid-Atlantic region to be shot down, if necessary, as the owner of these devices is still unknown. .
“We should do a very urgent intelligence analysis and remove them from the skies, especially if they fly over airports or military bases,” Sen. Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut said Thursday, as concerns about drones spread across Capitol Hill.
Residents of the New York region are also concerned that drones could share airspace with commercial airlines, he said.
“The (President Joe) Biden administration should act more aggressively against these drones that have been reported. If only to tell the American people who owns them, who is flying them, what they are. The lack of information is absolutely unacceptable,” said Blumenthal, a fellow Democrat of the president.
The drones appear to avoid detection by traditional methods such as helicopters and radios, according to a state lawmaker who received a report from the Department of Homeland Security on Wednesday.
Gov. Phil Murphy and law enforcement officials have emphasized that drones do not appear to pose a threat to public safety. The FBI has investigated and asked residents to share any videos, photos or other information they may have.
The number of sightings has increased in recent days, although authorities say many of the objects seen could have been planes rather than drones. It is also possible that a single drone has been reported more than once.
The concern arises, in part, because the devices were initially sighted near the Picatinny Arsenal, a US military research and manufacturing facility, and on President-elect Donald Trump’s golf course in Bedminster.
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Drones are legal in New Jersey for recreational and commercial use, but are subject to local and Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) regulations, as well as flight restrictions. Operators must be FAA certified.
Most, but not all, of the drones spotted in New Jersey were larger than those typically used by hobbyists.
Senator Cory Booker of New Jersey said he was frustrated by the lack of transparency, saying it could help spread fear or misinformation.
“We should know what is happening in our skies,” he said Thursday.
Fantasia, a Morris County Republican, as well as other lawmakers, met with state police and Homeland Security officials to discuss the surge of sightings going from the New York City area, through New Jersey and heading toward the west in different parts of Pennsylvania, and even Philadelphia. It is unknown at this time if the sightings are related.
Two Republican congressmen from coastal New Jersey, Reps. Chris Smith and Jeff Van Drew, have also called on the military to shoot down the drones.
Smith said a U.S. Coast Guard commander told him about an incident over the weekend in which a dozen drones followed a Coast Guard motorized lifeboat “in close pursuit” near Barnegat Light and the Island Beach State Park in Ocean County.
Coast Guard Lt. Luke Pinneo told Wednesday The Associated Press “that multiple low-altitude aircraft were observed in the vicinity of one of our vessels near Island Beach State Park.”
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