US officials are sending a drone detection system to New York, Governor Kathy Hochul says, after questions over mysterious objects in the skies over the east coast and beyond grew in recent days.
Hochul requested the federal assistance after drone sightings forced runways at Stewart International Airport in the state to shut for an hour last week.
“In response to my calls for additional resources, our federal partners are sending a drone detection system to New York,” Hochul wrote on X on Sunday.
She said state governments needed more power to deal on their own with the small, uncrewed aircraft that have also been reported in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Connecticut and Massachusetts.
And further west, in Ohio, drone sightings also led to the closure of Wright-Patterson Air Force Base for about an hour on Friday night, according to local media.
“Congress must pass a law that will give us the power to deal directly with the drones,” Hochul said in her post, after last week promising to “do whatever it takes to ensure New Yorkers remain safe”.
Senator Chuck Schumer said on Sunday he hoped to pass a bill that would give local enforcement more power to investigate unidentified flying objects, saying: “I’m pushing for answers amid these drone sightings”.
He also asked that a drone detection system similar to the one headed for New York also be sent to New Jersey, where most of the aerial encounters have so far been recorded.
New Jersey Senator Andy Kim said he went out with local residents over the weekend to observe the night sky, and that he believed – based on conversations with civilian pilots and flight tracking data – that most of the aircraft he saw “were almost certainly planes”.
Despite their demands for more help in dealing with the issue, Hochul and other officials have sought to reassure the public that the suspected drones do not pose a national security threat.
On Sunday, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas confirmed the sightings included drones, as well as manned aircraft commonly mistaken for drones. He told ABC News that he knew of “no foreign involvement” related to the sightings.
The Pentagon has denied the suggestion of one New Jersey representative that the possible drones were coming from an Iranian “mothership” lurking off the east coast, while an FBI official has said there may have been “a slight overreaction” on the topic.
According to Mayorkas, the uptick in drone reports may be due to a change in federal regulations allowing drones to be flown at night.
He added that the federal government was working in “close co-ordination” with state and local authorities on the issue, saying it was “critical” they be given the ability to counter drone activity under federal supervision.
With just over a month to go until Donald Trump’s inauguration, the president-elect’s pick for national security adviser, Republican Representative Mike Waltz, hit out against the Biden administration’s response to the sightings.
“I think Americans are finding it hard to believe we can’t figure out where these are coming from,” he told the BBC’s US news partner CBS.
“We need to get to the bottom of it,” he said, accusing government agencies of “pointing at each other” rather than offering answers.
Kim, a Democrat, also called on federal authorities to do more to assuage Americans’ concerns.
“People have a lot anxiety right now about the economy, health, security etc,” he wrote on X.
“And too often we find that those charged with working on these issues don’t engage the public with the respect and depth needed.” (BBC News)
