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

theguardian.com

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

#821

Post by darkarmani »

j_timberlake wrote: post #501

Quick summary after following this for a few days: FBI says they're rotary and fixed-wing drones, White House says they aren't foreign adversaries, Pentagon says they aren't USA military, all 3 insist that there's no indication of a real threat despite the drones being bigger and higher tech than retail drones. Politicians are PO'd that something about this doesn't add up: How can anyone know these aren't a threat wi…

> despite the drones being bigger and higher tech than retail drones.

How does anyone know how big these are? I've heard reports like this:

1. They looks larger than normal drones. 2. The look like they are operating at a height greater than 400 ft AGL.

How do they know the height? If they don't know the height, they certainly don't know the size. If it looks large, it isn't very high.

If it is large and high, I would think they would get some radar contacts.

If these are heavier than 55 pounds, I think we'd see the FAA jumping all over it. I also don't see why any LE would announce that they are actively figuring it out as they'd want to keep the element of surprise and track the drone back to the operators.

> Why isn't anyone bringing them down?

Only federal authorities can do anything to aircraft. This is in the realm of the FAA.

> How can anyone know these aren't a threat without knowing whose they are?

What kind of threat are we worried about here that wasn't around yesterday (last year)?

> White House says they aren't foreign adversaries I don't think the military is going to reveal its methods and capabilities.

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

#822

Post by darkarmani »

ptero wrote: post #579
otikik wrote: post #547

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> How can anyone know these aren't a threat without knowing whose they are? Because they are theirs, obviously. They just won't say it.

Neither FBI nor Pentagon have ability to fly drones in the US airspace at will. On the contrary, they, like everyone else, have to get FAA approvals and those always leak. And usually in fact published by the FAA who needs to warn pilots of potential threats -- one could go to the official FAA website and search those NOTAMs. Ignoring FAA by the FBI or the military just doesn't happen, the price to pay is WAY too hig…

They don't need approval for under 400 FT AGL in class G airspace.

The idiots reporting on it have NO idea how high these drones are. And the military has a bunch of carved airspace in various places. I think last time i looked (4 weeks ago), there was some reserved airspace off Cape Hatteras for the US Marines.

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

#823

Post by darkarmani »

gradus_ad wrote: post #49
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 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.

That sounds like a legal height then.

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

#824

Post by shagie »

curt15 wrote: post #549
selfmodruntime wrote: post #526

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> How can anyone know these aren't a threat without knowing whose they are They are - obviously - lying. This screams secrecy to me. All 3 know that these drones are not a threat. They aren't US military because they are a 3 letter agency program. They know there's nothing to worry about it, but they won't tell you any more details. Which has been the modus operandi for secret services for decades, so I'm surprised i…

Shoot one down and see who comes knocking?

The answer would be the FAA for sabotage of an aircraft and the local sheriff for unlawful discharge of a firearm within town limits.

The FAA may have someone who knows, but the interesting people wouldn't be the ones to show up when there's no need for them to do so.

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

#826

Post by codezero »

narrator wrote: post #770
j_timberlake wrote: post #501

Quick summary after following this for a few days: FBI says they're rotary and fixed-wing drones, White House says they aren't foreign adversaries, Pentagon says they aren't USA military, all 3 insist that there's no indication of a real threat despite the drones being bigger and higher tech than retail drones. Politicians are PO'd that something about this doesn't add up: How can anyone know these aren't a threat wi…

For those who want to know the most consistent UFOlogy angle that wasn't invented last week: Over on 4chan there was an alleged leaker and follow ups back in 2023 who says that there's an underwater ET mothership off the east coast that produces 3-d printed made to order small anti-gravity drones that launch and do various tasks to monitor us. Anything that approaches the underwater mothership is destroyed before the…

the only nuclear armed nation that has invaded a sovereign neighbor is russia, so how is the US meant to be starting WWIII?

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

#827

Post by Aloisius »

htk wrote: post #825

Suppose I have a strong blue laser and point it at said unrecognized drones. Would I be in trouble? How long should we wait an answer from the government before we can "fight back"?

You want to shine a laser with the intent to "fight back" at things flying in the sky at night that you don't recognize?

Well. That would be a federal crime with up to a $250,000 fine and/or a federal prison sentence of up to five years.

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

#828

Post by lxgr »

tigerBL00D wrote: post #691
rozab wrote: post #607

People would do well to keep in mind the episode of drone hysteria which happened at Gatwick airport in 2018. Hundreds of sightings were reported over a period of several days, shutting down the airport completely. It was a massive media event, camera crews from every outlet were at the airport, but none ever photographed a drone. None of the radar systems at the airport, nor the military anti-drone systems sent late…

I would not write this.off as hysteria. It's important to consider motivation of potential actors. Every advanced rocket guidance system uses cameras to zero in on its targets during the final approach. You can't rely on GPS at that point. To do a good job you need to know what your target looks like and high resolution drone imagery helps a lot.

That’s not true. Many missiles exclusively use GNSS and/or INS, for example ATACMS and MLRS.

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

#829

Post by heavyset_go »

jerf wrote: post #649
ninininino wrote: post #635

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Have you been following this news story at all? There are probably hundreds of video clips on social media depicting the same craft. So I'm not sure what the relevancy is of your story. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OT9rrkYGAUU&list=RDNSOT9rrkY... 3 minutes and 7 seconds in this video is a good example of what these typically appear as. But yes it's most likely a US military drone exercise or active operation (have…

The military theory doesn't fit to me on the grounds that at this point they should be just admitting it. They're calling more attention to the drones than they would if they would just say "yup, those are ours". You don't hide things by parading them around in front of people. They've got all sorts of places to secretly fly things and all the permits they need to create whatever RF environment they want in the proce…

> The military theory doesn't fit to me on the grounds that at this point they should be just admitting it.

They aren't going to confirm or deny any classified programs that they probably spent billions of dollars on just because the public is spooked.

See also: Mirage Men (2013). The government spent countless hours and millions of dollars to convince one man who saw classified aircraft that what he saw was actually aliens. They even set up a fake alien crash site for him to investigate in order to throw him off.

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

#830

Post by MadnessASAP »

teksimian wrote: post #682
michaelt wrote: post #676

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> fecklessness of all the relevant authorities. [...] nobody has the authority to figure out what is going on, or nobody has the motivation Some would see that as an admirable example of a small government not overstepping its bounds. The local sheriff doesn't have the authority to shoot down aircraft? And doesn't exceed their authority by shooting them anyway? Good job local sheriff. The FAA has a handful of drone r…

> Some would see that as an admirable example of a small government not overstepping its bounds. some would see it as a government in paralysis through bloat and bureaucracy with accountability not being clearly assigned to anyone. This is more likely the case now.

Ah yes, but who is responsible for delegating authority and assigning accountability? Certainly can't trust the government to such tasks. They might try and use bureaucracy.
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