Unexplained drone sightings in the skies over New Jersey have left locals on edge and US officials scrambling for answers.
Breathless local news reports have fueled worried sky-gazing and wild speculation – interspersed with blurry, dark clips circulating from social media as angry locals demand action.
For weeks now, the distinctive blinking lights and spinning rotors of large unmanned aerial vehicles have been seen across the state west of New York.
But military officials, elected representatives and investigators have been unable to explain repeated UFO phenomena.
Sam Lugo, 23, who works out at the Club Studio gym in Bergen County, New Jersey, one of the corners of the state where there have been many drone sightings, called the reports “crazy.”
“It is worrying that they were seen without any explanation. This could be worrying,” he said.
Officials, including the governor, have called on people not to be concerned, but have yet to offer any explanation for the aerial activity.
“I’ve seen them every night since Thanksgiving, they’re smaller than my Jeep,” wrote X user Gus Serretis.
“They hover around or slightly above tree height,” he said, describing them as aircraft too small to pilot and vowing to “shoot down any that come low enough.”
New Jersey Congressman Chris Smith wrote a letter to the Pentagon on Tuesday demanding answers.
“There have been numerous examples of unmanned aerial systems flying over New Jersey, including over military installations located in my district, close to sensitive sites and critical infrastructure,” he wrote to Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin.
‘Get kidnapped’
Smith said he was told that more than a dozen drones followed a Coast Guard lifeboat over the weekend.
The lawman then spent “hours” with the Ocean County sheriff monitoring the night sky, where multiple sightings were reported, according to his office.
The Pentagon, the main center of the US military, emphasizes that these objects are not “US military drones”.
Sabrina Singh, Pentagon deputy press secretary, said, “Our initial assessment is that this is not the work of a foreign adversary or a foreign entity.”
Singh also rejected Republican Congressman Jeff Van Drew’s claims on Fox News that Washington’s enemy Tehran was behind the sightings.
“There are no Iranian ships off the coast of the United States, and there is no so-called mothership launching drones toward the United States,” he said.
Joseph Boutros, 21, a New Jersey native, said he has seen reports of drone activity on social media. “But I haven’t seen them myself,” he said.
“It’s not something that concerns me unless they’re carrying weapons,” said the friendly local as she collected takeout from a Bergen County strip mall as night fell.
In the cloudy sky above, the only air vehicles with flashing lights were passenger jets headed to Newark Airport, New Jersey.
The FBI told AFP it was aware of sightings “in multiple locations over the past several weeks” and said it was working with other agencies on the issue.
But the agency would not confirm reports of a crisis meeting between various government departments over growing concerns.
Drones are permitted for both commercial applications and recreational use but are regulated by Federal Aviation Administration rules.
Eyewitnesses emphasized that the unexplained aerial objects are larger than those commonly used by drone enthusiasts.
“I don’t want to be kidnapped or anything like that,” Lugo said, smiling.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
