Pressure Mounts Over Mysterious New Jersey Drones: What We Know So Far

The evening sky and points of light near in Lebanon Township, N.J., on Dec. 5, 2024. Trisha Bushey via AP

Throughout the week, multiple state and U.S. lawmakers have been calling for more transparency after residents as well as local elected officials reported seeing drones across New Jersey in recent days.

U.S. officials, including the FBI and White House, have said the drones don’t pose a national security threat, while the Pentagon has denied claims that they are originating from Iran.

Reports of Crashes Surface

Officials in Pequannock Township, New Jersey, said that a drone crashed into the backyard of a residential area on Thursday night, according to a statement on the township’s police department Facebook page.

The statement stressed it was “a hobby or toy type of drone, not a large commercial or military grade drone.”

The mayor of Pequannock, Ryan Herd, told the New York Post that he saw the drone after going to the crash scene, saying that it is not one of the large, car-sized drones that have been reported around the state in recent weeks.

However, he said he is concerned about the mystery surrounding the recent drone sightings.

“Drones are flying over our houses, which is our private property. My family is here,” he said.

Officials in New Jersey’s Hillsborough Township, meanwhile, said Friday that there had been reports of a drone crashing into a power line in the township but found no evidence of a crash.

Hillsborough Police said in a statement that responding officers “met with the reporting party who reported observing drones in the air and one striking the high-power tension lines.” The person reporting the drone then said the drone crashed into a field, according to the statement. However, officials were not able to find any downed drone, it said.

Governors Issue Statements

New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy sent a letter on Friday to President Joe Biden expressing concerns about the drones and asking for help from the federal government.

“While I am sincerely grateful for your administration’s leadership in addressing this concerning issue, it has become apparent that more resources are needed to fully understand what is behind this activity,” Murphy wrote.

The governor cautioned that the sightings of unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) have triggered more questions than answers from the government. The public, he said, deserves to have “more concrete information” about the phenomenon.

“I respectfully urge you to continue to direct the federal agencies involved to work together until they uncover answers as to what is behind the UAS sightings,” he wrote.

Also Friday, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul released a statement on social media saying that her office has found “no evidence” that unmanned vehicles spotted by New Yorkers this week pose a threat to public safety or national security. She did not provide details on the investigation.

Meanwhile, officials in Staten Island, New York, held a news conference on the sightings, asking the federal government and NYPD to take action.

“Millions of people around here, in New Jersey and of course Staten Island and beyond, are getting nothing but, ‘don’t believe what you see,’” Borough President Vito Fossella said at the press event. “The people of Staten Island deserve answers, the people of this city and state and region deserve answers of what the heck is going on.”

Fossella said that the government should be more transparent. “Let’s be honest with the American people and treat them like adults and tell them what it is,” he said.

Trump Calls for Answers

President-elect Donald Trump expressed concern about mysterious drone sightings in the United States and called for additional information.

“Mystery Drone sightings all over the Country,” he said in a post on TruthSocial on Dec. 13. “Can this really be happening without our government’s knowledge? I don’t think so! Let the public know, and now. Otherwise, shoot them down!!!”

White House national security communications adviser John Kirby said because of various concerns, the government couldn’t just shoot down the drones.

“The idea of taking something down again, you want to worry about public safety. First of all, we don’t have enough conclusions to take that kind of policy action,” he said in a Fox News interview on Dec. 13.

He said that assuming the government had more knowledge, “you’re not going to want to shoot something down where it could hit somebody’s house or hurt someone.”

Where and When?

Dozens of drone sightings have been reported in New Jersey, starting in November. The drones were first spotted flying along the Raritan River, which feeds the Round Valley Reservoir—the state’s largest aquifer, located about 50 miles west of New York City.

The sightings soon spread throughout the state, however, including reports of drones near the Picatinny Arsenal, a military research and manufacturing facility, and over Trump’s Bedminster golf course, according to local officials. Drones were also recently seen in coastal areas.

Rep. Chris Smith (R-N.J.) said this week that he had been told by a Coast Guard officer that over a dozen drones tailed a Coast Guard lifeboat near Barnegat Light and Island Beach State Park, in Ocean County. That encounter took place over the weekend.

Senator Witnesses Drones

Earlier Friday, Sen. Andy Kim (D-N.J.) issued several statements on social media about the drones.

In a series of X posts, he detailed what he saw overnight while patrolling with local police in Hunterdon County, New Jersey.

The senator said that he and the officer saw multiple drones and that “sometimes they were solid white light, others flashed [off] red and green,” according to one post.

Previously, he said, the officer said police “tried to get closer with use of a helicopter but that the drones would turn off the lights and go dark if approached.”

US Officials Reiterate Drones Pose No Threat

An FBI spokesperson told The Epoch Times in an emailed statement Thursday that the FBI and Homeland Security (DHS) believe there is no threat posed by the reported drones, saying that some reports of drones were actually sightings of “manned aircraft.”

The two agencies  “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 statement went on.

“The FBI, DHS and our federal partners, in close coordination with the New Jersey State Police, continue to deploy personnel and technology to investigate this situation and confirm whether the reported drone flights are actually drones or are instead manned aircraft or otherwise inaccurate sightings,” the FBI and DHS statement said.

Kirby had similar comments during a Thursday press conference, saying drones are not U.S. military drones. They also do not appear to be from a foreign country.

Alarm Sounded on Iran

Earlier this week, Rep. Jeff Van Drew (R-N.J.) warned that the drones could be Iranian in origin, calling for more action from the White House.

“What we’ve uncovered is alarming—drones flying in from the direction of the ocean, possibly linked to a missing Iranian mothership. This is a national security crisis we cannot ignore. Bring them down now,” the lawmaker wrote on X on Dec. 11.

On Wednesday, the Department of Defense said there is no evidence to suggest that Iran is sending the drones.

“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,” Pentagon spokeswoman Sabrina Singh told reporters.

In response, Van Drew said he believes U.S. officials are lying.

“We aren’t being told the truth,” Van Drew said Thursday in a Fox News interview. “They are dealing with the American public like we’re stupid.”

Murphy also rejected Van Drew’s idea that Iran might have sent the drones.

“I’m not sure what he’s been watching lately, but he might want to watch the news,” the governor told Politico. “Israel has decapitated Iran, and we have, through economic sanctions.

“Let’s not try to fear monger this. Let’s try to honestly put our heads down with a sense of urgency, based on facts, and try to figure this out together.”

 Sam Dorman and The Associated Press contributed to this report.