Drone activity in New York shut down runways at Stewart Airfield, governor says

[BumRushDaShow]

Source: CBS News

Updated on: December 14, 2024 / 11:15 PM EST


NEW WINDSOR, N.Y. -- Drone activity forced runways at New York's Stewart Airfield to shut down Friday night, according to Gov. Kathy Hochul.

"Last night, the runways at Stewart Airfield were shut down for approximately one hour due to drone activity in the airspace. This has gone too far," Hochul said in a statement released Saturday morning.

Hochul's statement echoes a growing frustration among Tri-State Area lawmakers demanding answers from the federal government about the drones' origins amid numerous reports of them flying over New York, New Jersey and Connecticut. White House officials have deemed suspected threats from the drones to be "not credible" and said many sightings are likely just of planes.

The FBI says they've received about 5,000 leads since mid-November, but only about 100 have led to action, and a representative from the Department of Homeland Security says they are confident many of the sightings are manned aircraft that are being misidentified as drones.

Read more: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/drones-new-york-stewart-airfield/

[moniss]

1. Governor Hochul should make it clear

that she is going to put the NY National Guard on alert with orders to shoot down any drone interfering with public facility operations. Maybe that will get more response. Good or bad.

[Walleye]

2. Be a shame if they shot down a manned aircraft that was flying legally

[sop]

3. Trump says, "Shoot them down!!!"

(MSNBC) "On Friday, President-elect Donald Trump weighed in with some alternatives: The government should let the public in on what it knows about the drones, or simply 'shoot them down.' It wasn’t clear whether Trump was suggesting that the government or ordinary civilians do the shooting."

“'Mystery Drone sightings all over the Country,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “Can this really be happening without our government’s knowledge. I don’t think so! Let the public know, and now. Otherwise, shoot them down!!!'"

[moniss]

4. You take steps to idenitfy

any aircraft prior to an action but people, including a Congressman, are reporting these as drones not planes. So in this case of drones being used to harass and shut down an airport what should be the response? Do nothing and let them keep doing it until they cause a crash? I say that a threat has taken action against an airport. Remove the threat. No legitimate person in aviation would do such a thing as buzz a bunch of drones around an airfield.

[FredGarvin]

6. Jam them with ECM

Why is this not a thing?

Minimal collateral damage

[PSPS]

12. LOL. Sure! Jam them and just pretend nothing else flying doesn't also crash! That'll lean 'em good!!11!!1

[FredGarvin]

5. Why not just use drone jammers on them?

Cheap and effective.

[PSPS]

13. LOL. "Drone jammers?" I guess you mean the "only bad drone jammers." Is that on ebay?

[wishstar]

7. Other articles have said that there was only one "drone" sighted near that airfield

and video I have seen attached to articles about the incident shows a silhouette that looks like a small plane in the distance.

[FredGarvin]

8. Orson Welles got nothing on this ongoing hysteria

[BumRushDaShow]

10. This is why I have a problem with lumping all these aircraft together using the term "drone"

I.e., calling a quadcopter a "drone" is idiotic.

There ARE those 6ft or bigger long "drones" that are actually fixed wing (in some cases) - hell, Ukraine and Russia are lobbing them at each other continually. There are also ones starting to be used for agricultural spraying -

[AntiFascist]

15. "Fixed wing" drones have also been sighted, similar to the kind Russia uses in Ukraine n/t

[justaprogressive]

9. Fixed wing manned aircraft?

nope.

[IronLionZion]

11. Could be some sort of classified military exercise

but our government would rather people spew wild conspiracy theories, which is increasing the attention from the public, making it harder to keep secret.

[PSPS]

14. Well, there were a very few runway closures in the 50's due to alien flying-saucer spacecraft too.