By New York Post (U.S.) | Created at 2024-12-12 02:17:29 | Updated at 2024-12-22 22:29:06
1 week ago
WHARTON, New Jersey — The state government and the feds have one response to New Jersey residents who are getting increasingly concerned about sightings of mysterious car-size drones over the skies of the Garden State: Fuggedaboudit!
And that’s not cutting it anymore.
Frustration boiled over on Wednesday after both the Pentagon and officials in Trenton gave non-answers to worried questions about the strange objects that have been filmed dozens of times around the state in recent weeks.
The sightings led one US lawmaker to suggest the drones could be spy aircraft from Iran and that the military should shoot them down immediately. Others have suggested China is behind the close encounters off the Turnpike.
“There were a lot of angry legislators and soon to be angry mayors,” state Sen. Doug Steinhardt (R) told The Post after a briefing for lawmakers with state police and US Department of Homeland Security.
“And a lot of American citizens scratching their heads trying to figure out what are they doing.”
Authorities — from Gov. Phil Murphy to the FBI — continue to insist that there is no danger from the drones, but also claim they have no idea what the drones are.
Officials admitted the aircraft exhibit particularly sophisticated capabilities like becoming undetectable once a police drone or helicopter gives chase.
They also hover in one place for hours — far longer than the battery life of know civilian unmanned aircraft.
A Post reporter even witnessed one in person Wednesday, when an object the size of a Honda Fit with blinking white lights cruised by a gas station and headed toward Picatinny Arsenal – the US Army weapons research and manufacturing facility covering a swath of land in Wharton.
Many are suspicious Picatinny might be the source of the drones – and that the military knows exactly what they are but won’t say.
“I think the government knows what they are,” said 46-year-old mother and track coach, Melissa Ann Pederson.
“I think Picatinny Arsenal right here, I think it started over there.”
“They were one of the first to complain about it. The sightings over Picatinny Arsenal started from neighbors, and then Picatinny Arsenal itself started complaining. I started hearing about them in November. Picatinny Arsenal is not very far away from here. Not far at all.”
Pederson has seen multiple drones herself, with the “huge” objects flying in formations about 50 feet in the air and covered in red, green, and white lights.
“I think we should have had answers on this by now. We’ve had the technology to track this kind of stuff for decades. What’s going on with this?” she said.
Local officials told The Post they tend to agree with that explanation — and suggest many sightings farther afield could be either civilian copycats flying their own drones or people mistaking planes, helicopters or satellites for UFOs.
The mystery took an unexpected twist Wednesday when US Rep. Jeff Van Drew (R-NJ) claimed the drones “very possibly could be” Iranian technology deployed from a “mothership” stationed off the east coast, citing “highly reliable” sources with “top security access” when contacted by The Post.
“These drones should be shot down,” he told Fox News in an explosive appearance, adding that “the military is on full alert with this.”
But within hours the Pentagon flatly rebuked Van Drew’s claims, insisting there was “no evidence” the drones belonged to a foreign adversary.
“There is no Iranian ship off the coast of the United States, and there’s no so-called mothership launching drones towards the United States,” a representative told reporters — then proceeded on to other topics without providing any insight on what they could be.
That lack of interest or insight has left many baffled – including people in the highest reaches of New Jersey law enforcement.
“We’re all befuddled on what the f–k is going on,” one high ranking New Jersey police source told The Post.
“It doesn’t seem like anyone is that concerned.”
“I have never had anything in my time where no one knows what’s going on.”
The lack of coordinated response from federal agencies that defend American skies and territory is also troubling, the official said.
After the meeting with lawmakers in Trenton Wednesday, Assemblywoman Dawn Fantasia expounded upon the scope of the situation in an X post – and the bureaucratic snafu that has kept local officials from addressing it.
The sightings began around Nov. 18, with incidents being reported every night since and persisting until dawn.
Some nights there were as many as 180 sightings, according to Fantasia.
Officials say the drones are typically at least six feet in diameter, and range up to 15 miles while staying in the air for up to seven hours.
She said the state authorities have been left “shackled” and unable to intercept the drones because they fall under federal jurisdiction.
And while the FBI is leading the investigation, the DHS is assisting possibly with the help of the Coast Guard – but Fantasia noted that even that federal jurisdiction seemed “shrouded in mystery” during the briefing.
“We know nothing. PERIOD. To state that there is no known or credible threat is incredibly misleading,” Fantasia wrote.
The FBI, meanwhile, continues to claim they have no idea where the drones are coming from, while insisting there is no danger.
Steinhardt, the NJ state senator, said that the lack of alarm from federal agencies — and their apparently lack of ability to do anything about the drones — left him feeling uneasy after the briefing.
“They keep doubling down on, ‘There’s no threat,’ but they can’t find them and track them,” Steinhardt said.
“We are hearing from Homeland Security that they don’t have the technology to detect them, to track them, to disable them or to disable them.”
“When people are saying that there is no credible threat, I believe they are saying they don’t know if there is one. That’s concerning,” he added, explaining he wants to believe officials’ claims that they don’t know what is happening.
“If anyone really knows they are not telling us. I believe [State Police Col. Patrick Callahan]. He’s of the opinion that if it was another government agency they would have shared that information with him. And I want to believe that’s true, but…” he said.
Van Drew, who represents the Jersey Shore in the US House, has stood by his statement about Iran, and even sent a letter to President Biden imploring him to take action, and laying out “circumstantial evidence” supporting his claims.
“We have information that a sea-based Iranian drone mothership is currently missing from port, and that its embarkation timeline would align with the appearance of the New Jersey Drones,” he wrote in the letter, obtained by The Post.
He added that Iran has previously sailed ships near the US, and that the country has a “sophisticated” partnership with China over drone technology, which included recent sales of technology.
“And of course, it is the policy of the Iranian government to bring about the destruction of the United States of America. While I remain open to alternate explanations, I have not been presented a single credible, cohesive narrative except for that Iran is controlling these drones,” Van Drew wrote.
— Additional reporting by Dana Kennedy
