Flight restrictions have been imposed above 22 pieces of “critical New Jersey infrastructure” like power plants, amid an ongoing panic over numerous potential drones being spotted across the Northeast over the last month.
The Federal Aviation Administration said the restrictions, which bar drone flights within 400 feet of designated sites, came “at the request of federal security partners.” They last through January 17.
Officials in New Jersey, the center of the drone panic, said the restrictions aren’t enough to ease the public’s concerns about the sightings.
“I think the powers-that-be are stonewalling,” Mine Hill Mayor Sam Morris told PIX11 News. “And I would not stop short of saying I think they’re gaslighting. They’re trying to now tell people you’re not seeing anything. And that’s just not true.”
Federal officials have sought to assure the public that there’s nothing to fear about the drones, many of which they say are authorized flights or other types of normal aircraft being mistaken for drones.
“We have no evidence at this time that the reported drone sightings pose a national security or public safety threat or have a foreign nexus,” the FBI and Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said in a statement last week.
Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said the department has deployed resources, personnel, and technology to monitor the sightings in New Jersey.
“Some of those drone sightings are, in fact, drones. Some are manned aircraft that are commonly mistaken for drones,” he recently told ABC News. “But there’s no question that drones are being sighted.”
“We deploy personnel, technology, and, if there is any reason for concern, if we identify any foreign involvement or criminal activity, we will communicate with the American public accordingly,” the secretary added.
Earlier this week, President Biden said all available information suggests "nothing nefarious.”
That message of calm hasn’t stopped the administration from coming in for bipartisan criticism that it isn’t doing enough.
On Wednesday, Senate Leader Chuck Schumer expressed his frustrations after a bill stalled that would let local enforcement track the drones and enhance federal powers to respond.
“The people in New York and New Jersey have a lot of questions, and they’re not getting good enough answers,” the Democrat said. “The utter confusion surrounding these drone sightings shows that the feds can’t respond all on their own.”
Republican leaders also hammered Biden on the drones.
“This is why we need Donald J. Trump back in the White House, to bring a steady hand to the wheel and a strong commander-in-chief. He would have already had the answers,” House Speaker Mike Johnson told Fox and Friends on Wednesday.
Since last month, drone sightings have been reported in New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, Florida, and California.
Conspiracy theories have proliferated about the aircraft, with unsupported speculation that they’re everything from Iranian drones to UFOs to a U.S. government psychological operation.
In the ensuing paranoia, citizens have taken to shining laser pointers at passing aircraft a triple the usual rate, according to the FAA, putting pilots and passengers at risk.
