Members of Congress are among those calling for greater transparency from the federal government as a spate of reported drone sightings concentrated in New Jersey and New York have raised questions beyond the Northeast.
Reported sightings of drones, officially known as unmanned aerial systems, or UAS, have spiked since Nov.18, when authorities received several reports of suspicious drone activity near critical infrastructure in New Jersey, according to an FBI official in the state who briefed reporters over the weekend.
The increased activity has worried some and led to calls from lawmakers for the federal agencies to provide more information on drone activity, even as security officials urged caution.
In a statement that described an “epidemic of non-stop drone sightings,” U.S. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer called for the federal government to deploy more drone-detection systems and to share information with local authorities.
“I want it deployed widely across New York and New Jersey to help give us concrete answers on what is going on, and from where,” Schumer, a New York Democrat, said of a drone-detection system that the federal government uses. “What we need right now is data. The briefings I have had tell me there is no evidence that this is a government or foreign activity, and so, we have to answer the logical of question of: who?”
Schumer called on Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas to deploy the drone-detection system and said he would cosponsor a bill that would give local law enforcement more authority to respond to drone sightings.
Drones, like planes and other users of the national airspace, are regulated by the Federal Aviation Administration.
“We still have very few answers on where some of these drones come from and who may be operating them,” Schumer said Monday on the Senate floor. “The people of New York and New Jersey have a lot of questions and haven’t gotten many answers. We know one thing, though. Local officials now don’t have the resources nor the authority to get to the bottom of what’s happening.”
On CBS’ Sunday morning news show “Face the Nation,” Sen. Amy Klobuchar, a Minnesota Democrat who is a senior member of the Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee with jurisdiction over the FAA, called for federal officials to brief U.S. senators.
“We need more transparency,” she said.
‘No evidence’ of threat, says DOD
U.S. Defense Department spokesman Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder told reporters Monday that there was “no evidence at this time that the reported drone sightings pose a national security or public safety threat or have a foreign nexus.”
Regardless, he said he wanted to take the public’s concerns seriously, but also offered further context.
The drone industry is expanding, with more than 1 million hobbyist and commercial drones licensed by the FAA and 8,000 in use daily.
He likened the drone sightings, even those near military installations or other important sites, to drivers who may get lost and turn up in their cars at places they are not supposed to be, something he said happens regularly without incident.
“The point being is that flying drones is not illegal,” he said. “There are thousands of drones flown around the U.S. on a daily basis. So, as a result, it’s not that unusual to see drones in the sky, nor is it an indication of malicious activity or any public safety threat.”
New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy, a Democrat, noted Monday that federal investigators had not found any malicious activity and urged residents to “calm down” about drone sightings.
Many recent reports of drones, noted by non-experts, turned out to be commercial planes flying regularly scheduled nighttime routes.
More than 5,000 tips
The New Jersey-based FBI official said that the vast majority of the more than 5,000 tips his office received in the past month related to unidentified objects in the night skies have not been “actionable.”
The official, who briefed reporters along with officials from other agencies on the condition their names not be used, said the FBI was working to identify the 100 or so tips that did warrant further investigation.
“I don’t want to cause alarm and panic, but you can’t ignore the sightings that have been there, and we are concerned about those just as much as anybody else is,” the FBI official said. “We’re doing our best to find the origin of that specific — of those drone activities. But I think there has been a slight overreaction.”
