Page 31 - Pierce County Lawyer - January February 2025

The story was published in the press and soon many other
people began spotting and reporting drones or UAP5 flying over
and around Picatinny Arsenal at night. An Army spokesperson
confirmed that drones were sighted over Picatinny Arsenal
and Naval Weapons Station Earle, but added “this is not a new
issue for us. We've had to deal with drone incursions over our
bases for quite a time now. It's something that we routinely
respond to in each and every case when reporting is cited."6
The spokesperson said that military installations have means
to detect and respond to drones, and that security personnel
are trained to identify and track drones flying without special
authorization over U.S. military bases.7 But, some had difficulty
accepting the Army spokesperson’s calm assurance when
shortly thereafter, the FBI admitted that drones of unknown
origin were flying over the President-elect’s Bedminster golf
club and had asked the Federal Aviation Administration
(FAA) to ban all aircraft flights over Bedminster on grounds of
“security.”8
Some New Jersey residents
felt their intelligence was
being questioned and made
clear they knew the difference
between airplanes and drones:
Some people think that, if the drones or their operators had
nefarious intentions, they would never use lights but would fly
in total darkness.9
However, there were plenty of witnesses who reported seeing
the drones go dark if they were spotted or were chased by other
aircraft.10 The public was very curious about the government’s
drone tracking capabilities and why it was so difficult to follow
at least one drone home with another aircraft or an electronic
device.
Over the next two weeks, the FBI received thousands of
drone reports from residents all over New Jersey. The drones
flew solo and in groups at night. Many had white or colored
lights that remained constant but others went intermittently
dark. Witnesses were stunned by the size of the drones which
many described as big as a bus or an SUV. They could hover
in place or dart and change direction at high speed unlike any
conventional manned aircraft. Soon swarms of drones were
reported in New York, Maryland and Pennsylvania.
According to the FBI, 99.5% of the reports were tossed aside
as cases of natural phenomenon or mistaken identity. The
FBI kept saying there was no known threat to public safety
but many thought this was unsatisfactory given the nature
and number of the sightings and FAA’s eventual imposition of
Temporary Flight Restrictions all over New Jersey on grounds
of national security.
The mystery drones were often seen flying around for hours
which greatly exceeds the maximum flight time of conventional
consumer and commercial drones by a large margin. Either the
New Jersey drones were not what they appeared to be or were
using some kind of hybrid propulsion.11
Image
is public
domain.
The theory that most if not all New Jersey drone sightings were
reported by impressionable and unreliable lay people who
could not accurately perceive or describe what they saw in the
night sky took on water when the crew of a US Coast Guard
ship was followed and chased by multiple large drones flying
New Jersey coast. Around the same time, an Ocean Beach park
ranger reported seeing as many as fifty large drones flying over
the ocean towards the coast.
Before long, the FAA imposed two more sets of Temporary
Flight Restrictions covering much of New Jersey. This time the
feds and the media made clear that violators may be met with
deadly force:
Across New Jersey and Beyond,” The New York Times, December 24, 2024.
5 Unidentified Aerial Phenomenon or UAP is replacing Unidentified Flying Object or
UFO.
6 See Wilson, McFadden and Tully, “How Drone Fever Spread Across New Jersey
and Beyond,” The New York Times, December 24, 2024.
7 Id. It is unclear how this may be reconciled with General Kelly’s and General Van-
Herck’s published statements that none of the Langley drones could be tracked.
8 The FAA may impose Temporary Flight Restrictions (TFR) on designated airspace
for security, safety, or other reasons. TFRs prohibit all aircraft (conventional and UAV)
from entering or flying through restricted airspace without specific authorization.
Continued on next page.
9 14 CFR § 91.209 prohibits operating aircraft at night without “lighted position lights.”
10 A helicopter pilot working for local law enforcement reported that he flew over and
tried to follow one drone but it suddenly went dark and he was ordered to land at once
due to risk of collision.
11 Conventional commercial and consumer grade drones use lithium batteries and
have maximum flight times of 30 to 60 minutes. One theory is that the government is
secretly testing experimental aircraft.
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