New Jersey Proposes Banning All Drones to Combat Mystery Sightings

[BumRushDaShow]

Source: Newsweek

Published Dec 12, 2024 at 12:24 PM EST


Amid growing concern over mysterious drone flights, New Jersey lawmakers are proposing stricter regulations, including a temporary statewide ban on unmanned aerial devices.

Large drones spotted across the state in recent weeks have evaded traditional detection methods, according to the Department of Homeland Security.

Assemblywoman Dawn Fantasia, briefed by officials on Wednesday, described the drones as up to six feet in diameter and often operating with their lights off. The mysterious devices have been seen from the New York City area to Pennsylvania, including Philadelphia.

Initial sightings near the Picatinny Arsenal, a U.S. military research facility, and their reported presence near President-elect Donald Trump's golf course in Bedminster heightened concerns. Fantasia emphasized these drones do not appear to be flown by hobbyists.

Read more: https://www.newsweek.com/new-jersey-proposes-banning-all-drones-combat-mystery-sightings-1999645

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I heard a report today where some people in NE Philly claimed to have had a sighting.

[FakeNoose]

1. It's only a short hop from NJ to PA or DE or MD

... not to mention NY!

[electric_blue68]

19. They've been spotted over Staten Island

[Dennis Donovan]

2. You know, this ongoing drone story is a welcomed change from Trump news...

...thank you, mystery drones!

[bucolic_frolic]

3. Lots of voyeurs but nobody does anything about them.

[Ferrets are Cool]

18. I hope that was a joke.

[usonian]

4. I expect they'll just ban the SIGHTING of drones.

Don't look up.

[Srkdqltr]

5. I'm sure banning them will help. make the government look like it's doing something.

[MichMan]

12. Even as they are still flying around ? n/t

[Srkdqltr]

16. Was being sarcastic. Take the period out.

[3Hotdogs]

6. Where are they coming from? I'll tell ya.

The Great Swamp is 10,000 acres. You use’ta be able to go in there.

Now, you can only go on one section.

What are they hiding?

[3825-87867]

7. But if you put a gun on them...

then they're covered by the 2nd! Ain't that right Alito and Thomas?
After all, Palin and MTG can hunt wolves and squirrels and chipmunks and butterflys from helicopters...

[reACTIONary]

9. They Go Dark!!!

New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy said the recent drones which have been sighted in the state are "very sophisticated," saying, "the minute you get your eyes on them, they go dark."

What an idiot. The drones disappear if you look at them? Maybe they weren't there in the first place.

[BumRushDaShow]

10. All the images I have seen of them have been at night

where people have some pics (shot from a distance) of those that have running lights on. Apparently some of them will suddenly shut off their lights (I suppose if someone gets close enough to be nearly underneath them).

(and as a note, I'm not taking his utterance "literally" )

[reACTIONary]

14. The Truth is Out There.....

..... Somewhere ....

[reACTIONary]

11. Drone Time Warp!!

Unusual phenomena have been linked to the sightings, including a family's report of their car clock changing while a drone hovered overhead.

What's next? The old a-probe? The "a" is for "alien", ok?

[Marthe48]

13. Maybe if they are a threat from elsewhere

all of us Americans will forget our differences, unite and work to defeat the threat, like in Independence Day.
Yeah, buddy!

[womanofthehills]

15. Stranger by the day - from White House

Link to tweet

?s=46&t=YZgyyp4w_z7vW3neKxa6cQ

[Blues Heron]

17. are there any clear photos? Where are the journalists with the expensive telephotos?

[BumRushDaShow]

20. AP has an embedded video

where at least one shot shows how big one of them might be - https://apnews.com/article/fbi-drones-new-jersey-8bfe84cf2678400181292b75f9193395

(wish it was on youtube although I expect some of the same shots are on news site youtube reports)

When I first heard of this, I assumed it was some outfit testing those "firework alternative" quadcopters used to do "light shows". But apparently these are bigger ones (supposedly 6ft long/wide ones).

[OldBaldy1701E]

21. I guarantee if someone shoots one down, we will find out who they belong to.

Either from examination, or when the knock on the door comes... either way, they will know once and for all.

Yet, no one seems willing to do anything other than point and go, "Huh..."

Now, of course, this is a bad idea because some people just cannot be trusted to have good judgement, so no one is going to do this, and we will probably never know what is going on.

But, hey... the military and the Feds have never lied to us before, right? Right??

[FakeNoose]

22. Or send up a better, faster drone to capture one of them

But I agree, we need to know the source and purpose of these mysterious things.
It doesn't sound good.

[Deuxcents]

27. I'm surprised that so many people with high powered guns hasn't shot one yet..or if so, we don't know

[Martin68]

23. It seems to me it is more important to develop effective anti-drone technology rather than banning all personal drones.

[Nigrum Cattus]

24. 100% right wing news diversion

This "story" is pure red herring B.S.. They are and will continue to
produce as much "look over there" garbage as they can to get
the corporate media to talk about anything other than the corruption
they are planning and the unqualified appointments they have
put up. Stick to what they are doing, nothing else.

[BumRushDaShow]

25. You are in California (per your Profile)

and so far there have been no sightings there but here in the PA-NJ-DE tristate area, they have been all around.

When the FAA first authorized the full complement of UASs in 2012 via the FAA Modernization and Reform Act of 2012, I was still living in a hi-rise building and the first thing I did was to get some new heavy/blackout drapes for my balcony windows/doors. At the time, it was bad enough to see Google's helicopters hovering over my building getting images and now you have this.

The quadcopters used by EMS personnel have been invaluable for search and rescue as well as getting a birdseye view of disaster areas (including wildfires, etc). But the abuse by some "hobbyists" has been concerning and in this case, with these apparently being bigger than the typical quadcopter, there is a bigger problem of where they are being launched from.

I originally assumed some org was testing those "firework alternative" ones for "light shows" but apparently not. Just saw this local news report with more sightings over Delaware (and the report shows the regular consumer ones used for "shows" ) where one person got a somewhat clear pic of the size of one -

[ReRe]

28. Uhhh

There was a large fleet of them that flew over Sacramento, CA and another large fleet of them over San Antonio. There's a compiled video somewhere on YouTube which includes clips from all over the world. UK, Argentina, Brazil, a bunch of places, from the passenger windows of planes, even pilots in cockpit. I hope you can find it. I think it was about 30 mins long.

[BumRushDaShow]

29. I have seen reports of them over Oregon recently

But the point is, there are many here on DU claiming this whole thing is "fake" and "a distraction" and "mass hysteria" - even when you have a new sitting Senator from NJ - Andy Kim - who went out with LEO for 2 hours and saw what people were talking about himself.

I expect there are probably a bunch of "fake" reports (social media-generated) mixed in with real ones, but dismissing concerns by people in numerous communities is insulting.

I *knew* that when that damn law came out authorizing these damn things a dozen years ago, there would be issues. There are too many loopholes in existing laws/regulations on how to handle situations like this, and notably any of the larger ones.

IMHO, they need to change the definition of these things and stop calling those little quadcopters "drones" and save the term "drone" for the larger "plane-like" versions.

[Oneironaut]

26. 99.9% chance this is all just mass hysteria with no basis in fact.

For example, a lot of these "sightings" seem to be either fake or just landing planes.