The drones that have recently been observed in New Jersey and the surrounding area are, in the opinion of the American services, hobby, commercial and police machines operating fully legally, said John Kirby, spokesman for the US National Security Council. He speculated that the current uproar is because “more people have started looking at the sky.”
– At this time, in our assessment, this drone activity includes commercial, hobby and police drones, all operating legally or civil aviation aircraft. That's an assessment that comes from law enforcement officials, Kirby said during an online briefing Monday.
In this way, he responded to accusations that the authorities were hiding knowledge about “mysterious” drones.
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Kirby's statement is the first response from the White House about a series of drone sightings in New Jersey and surrounding states in recent weeks. The spokesman emphasized that the services' assessment is based on an in-depth analysis of over 5,000 reports, of which less than 100 were deemed worthy of further investigation.
Drone-like objects over Bernardsville, New JerseyBrian Glenn/TMX/AP/CNN
Mysterious drones in the American sky
Reports about mysterious drones began with drone observations over military installations on November 18, but in the following weeks they intensified, causing a great stir among residents, Internet users and politicians of both parties who demanded that the federal authorities clarify the matter.
Last week, Republican Rep. Jeff Van Drew of New Jersey claimed the drones were Iranian drones. On Monday, the president-elect Donald Trump he accused the government of concealing knowledge of the matter and announced that he had canceled plans to travel to his estate in New Jersey.
Unidentified objects in the USA. Theories aboundAngelika Maj/Fakty o Świecie TVN24 BiS
“More people started looking at the sky”
Kirby emphasized that there are more than one million registered private unmanned aircraft in the United States, and thousands of commercial, hobby and police drones fly in the air every day.
He speculated that the current uproar is because the first reports of drones triggered an avalanche of public interest, resulting in “more people looking up at the sky.”
The spokesman admitted that in several cases drones had been observed around military bases, but emphasized that this was nothing new.
Main photo source: Brian Glenn/TMX/AP/CNN