Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Mysterious New Jersey drone sightings prompt call for 'state of emergency'

theguardian.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

241–250 of 943 posts

Re: Mysterious New Jersey drone sightings prompt call for 'state of emergency'

#241

Post by op00to »

walrus01 wrote: post #110
gradus_ad wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I live in NJ. I've seen these drones. They are not commercial airliners or helicopters. They are loud, fly low and slow, and make abrupt turns unlike any planes I've seen. Their lights are also very different from other aircraft. I can see how it's tempting to chalk this up to hysteria, but they are absolutely large drones of some kind.

Under what circumstances and motivations, exactly, do you think that unlicensed and illegal (clearly not FAA Part 107 compliant) drone operators would be motivated to put blinking white, red and green lights on their mystery drones? Why would they do that? If you're doing to build a drone to fly at night and do clearly illegal things you're going to make the thing matte black and have no lights on it whatsoever.

What’s not part 107 compliant? All the activity I’ve heard was fully legal.

Re: Mysterious New Jersey drone sightings prompt call for 'state of emergency'

#242

Post by op00to »

_DeadFred_ wrote: post #229
apcragg wrote: post #13

The photos I've seen posted look very obviously like commercial airliners and helicopters with their navigation lights on. You can even make out the American Airlines livery on the tail! https://www.app.com/story/news/local/new-jersey/2024/12/11/d...

I don't think the Coast Guard mistook 12 American Airlines planes for drones following their boat: https://apnews.com/article/fbi-drones-new-jersey-a978470fa3b... In another article a Sheriff saw 50 drones coming in from the ocean. Here a New Jersey elected official talks about the Sheriff/Police helicopter following an unidentified drone, then pull back because they feared for their safety (so low probability it was…

You keep posting the same stuff multiple times in the thread. It doesn’t help your argument.

Re: Mysterious New Jersey drone sightings prompt call for 'state of emergency'

#243

Post by engineer_22 »

thephyber wrote: post #22
soared wrote: post #4

Bit concerning that no government agencies have figured out what’s going on, but hardly seems like there is a reason for a limited state of emergency given there is no known threat at all. My guess is a US company is gathering data and hasn’t admitted to do so without some type of licensing/etc

There was an article 1-2 days ago saying that one was in the area of a LifeFlight helicopter, preventing the safe operation of that medical transport. There has been a threat articulated. It may not be a true report and the response may not be proportional/appropriate to the threat, but to say there is zero threat is wrong. Also, reportedly these are the size of SUVs. I don’t believe you need that much of an investme…

> Also, reportedly these are the size of SUVs. I don’t believe you need that much of an investment for “gathering data”.

A drone of such size has larger payload, further range and greater persistence than a smaller craft. Since the operator hasn't been identified we don't have an answer to their mission yet.

Mystery drones this size have been a story in other areas in the USA over the preceding year without as much attention. They were never identified, and a motive never ascertained.

Re: Mysterious New Jersey drone sightings prompt call for 'state of emergency'

#244

Post by op00to »

bragr wrote: post #178
Amezarak wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The pentagon, for example, just declared that they do not know what they are[1]. This sounds impressive, but people don't seem to realize that there is no USGOV tracking of drone-sized objects in US airspace. Of course they can't say who is doing it or where they're coming from, they also don't know what's going on when you launch a drone from your backyard and fly it around. The FAA has a database of reports of pe…

>people don't seem to realize that there is no USGOV tracking of drone-sized objects Anything 250g or heavier has to have Remote ID now. Now that doesn't exclude the possibility of illegal drones without it, but it isn't true that there is "no drone tracking". https://www.faa.gov/uas/getting_started/remote_id https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-14/chapter-I/subchapter-F...

What do you think Drone ID is? It’s basically Bluetooth transmissions. Very localized reception and basically impossible to monitor over a wide area without many, many receivers spread out evenly all over the place.

Re: Mysterious New Jersey drone sightings prompt call for 'state of emergency'

#245

Post by bongodongobob »

guhcampos wrote: post #65

[flagged]

Yeah the avg person in the US is in a state of complete terror because grades better than C's in high school make you an uncool nerd. Imagine thinking everything is made of magic and people who try to explain basic science are trying to lie to you with confusing gotcha arguments. We are absolutely cooked.

Re: Mysterious New Jersey drone sightings prompt call for 'state of emergency'

#246

Post by op00to »

soared wrote: post #4

Bit concerning that no government agencies have figured out what’s going on, but hardly seems like there is a reason for a limited state of emergency given there is no known threat at all. My guess is a US company is gathering data and hasn’t admitted to do so without some type of licensing/etc

What makes you think that they don’t know? Isn’t it common for the military to lie about what they know?

Re: Mysterious New Jersey drone sightings prompt call for 'state of emergency'

#247

Post by aaron695 »

kfrzcode wrote: post #161
guhcampos wrote: post #65

[flagged]

Which models? What are the specific dimensions? I assume if you're confident they're widespread, commercially available, you know what kind of aircraft we're dealing with. I'd hope you can help me demystify further what's going on in the controlled airspace near military installations.

[dead]

Re: Mysterious New Jersey drone sightings prompt call for 'state of emergency'

#248

Post by cyx65 »

whimsicalism wrote: post #215
guhcampos wrote: post #65

[flagged]

I think social media is really having a detrimental impact on these sort of mass panics.

Vernor Vinge called it Belief Circles. And in Rainbows End he tells a story of how to get them to stampede in one direction or another to suit anyones agenda. But on the flip side, once you create a herd of domesticated animals (side note: always useful to deeply understand how the process of animal domestication works), Stampedes can start from just one individual getting scared by their own shadow. To keep things from going out of control, the herd manager is then programmed (or "learns"), to get the herd to run in circles. They eventually get tired. And the story ends happily ever after.

Re: Mysterious New Jersey drone sightings prompt call for 'state of emergency'

#249

Post by tacticalturtle »

georgeburdell wrote: post #202
guhcampos wrote: post #65

[flagged]

Not commenting on NJ specifically, but there have been drone sightings near sensitive military sites recently, as reported by the military

Here’s one recent example in Virginia:

https://www.wsj.com/politics/national-security/drones-milita...

A graduate student in Minnesota flew to a naval base in Virginia, used a consumer drone to photograph the area, then attempted to board a flight to China before he was caught by authorities.

His defense was that he was a fan of boats and drones, and as his lawyer said:

“If he was a foreign agent, he would be the worst spy ever known”

Re: Mysterious New Jersey drone sightings prompt call for 'state of emergency'

#250

Post by op00to »

Aloisius wrote: post #174
amatecha wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

TIL (from that page): "Flying drones at night without a waiver from the FAA is a violation of federal law" -- perhaps relevant to the top level article

You haven't needed a waiver since 2021. Now you can get near real-time approval to fly at night under Part 107.

You don’t need any prior approval under 107 to fly at night. You don’t need a part 107 license to fly at night if you’re flying for “fun”. You simply need lights.
Post reply on HN