Biden Admin Official Offers Reason for Mystery Drone Sightings
Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas on Sunday suggested that a rule change by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) in September of 2023 “may be one of the reasons” for the reports of drone sightings at night in the northeast of the country.
Drones have been spotted in recent weeks across New Jersey and neighboring states, prompting concern among residents and lawmakers and launching investigations by the FBI and other law enforcement agencies. The FBI says that it has received over 3,000 tips related to the drone sightings, with most of the purported observations occurring at night.
“In September of 2023, the Federal Aviation Administration, the FAA, changed the rules so that drones could fly at night,” the Biden administration official told ABC News’ This Week on Sunday. “And that may be one of the reasons why now people are seeing more drones than they did before, especially from dawn to dusk.”
Mayorkas acknowledged that “there’s no question that drones are being sighted.” The Biden admin official noted that “thousands” are flying in the United States every day, and that “more than one million drones” are registered nationwide.
“I want to assure the American public that we in the federal government have deployed additional resources, personnel, technology to assist the New Jersey State Police in addressing the drone sightings,” he said in the interview.
Newsweek has reached out to DHS for comment.
Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas speaks during a daily press briefing at the White House in Washington, D.C. on October 1. Mayorkas on Sunday said that an FAA rule change may be “one of the reasons” people are noticing more drones in the sky at night.
SAUL LOEB/AFP via Getty Images
How Has the Government Responded to Mystery Drones?
Mayorkas’ comments came after governors, members of Congress, local officials and police have all publicly raised concerns about the uptick in sightings. While some of the videos shared to social media have been deemed to be of airplanes or normal aircraft activity, others remain unexplained. Leading politicians and officials have also publicly talked about their own experience observing the flying objects.
“At this point, we have not identified any basis for believing that there’s any criminal activity involved, that there’s any national security threat, that there’s any particular public safety threat, or that there is a malicious foreign actor involved in these drones,” one senior official of President Joe Biden‘s administration told reporters during a press call on Saturday.
A National Security Council spokesperson added: “At least some portion of what has been reported to be drones have on further inquiry turned out to be manned aircraft that were lawfully in the airspace and that is not uncommon for people to see things that appear to be drones that turn out not to be drones.”
Backlash to Government’s Drone Response
The federal government response has sparked significant criticism, with some
