What Are the Mystery Drones Reported over New York State and New Jersey?Reports of unidentified flying objects in the northeastern U.S. are on the rise, but so far officials have few answers for alarmed residents
By Lee Billings
December 9, 2024
Drone at sunset
Rensburg/Alamy Stock PhotoWhat’s bright, flying and reportedly swarming the night skies over northern New Jersey?
The answer is apparently “drones,” but no one seems to know—or, at least, to be able to disclose—much more than that.
The past several weeks have seen surging reports of strange unidentified aircraft—some allegedly as large as a car—over parts of the Garden State. Eyewitnesses and videos suggest that some have been rotorcraft and others have been fixed-wing aircraft. Some have purportedly flown solo and erratically, while others have seemed to operate in an orderly formation. All, however, have appeared to show no signs of stealth; they’ve been described as conspicuously bright lights. And according to a December 5 social media post by New Jersey governor Phil Murphy, the spate of sightings is being seriously investigated—but “there is no known threat to the public at this time.”
Many of the reports initially clustered in New Jersey’s Morris County—where strange objects were seen apparently maneuvering over major waterways, municipal reservoirs and even sensitive military facilities such as the U.S. Army’s Picatinny Arsenal. Some of the latest sightings have been from other surrounding counties, however, and have stretched as far south as the outskirts of Philadelphia. The sightings have come amid fresh reports of alarming drone activity elsewhere, including at four military bases in the U.K. that are used by the U.S. in recent weeks and around Langley Air Force Base in Virginia in December 2023.
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https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/what-are-the-mystery-drones-reported-over-new-york-and-new-jersey/