All those mysterious drone sightings? The government says don’t worry about it

A drone seen over Ridge, New York on Dec. 12

Photo: Grant Parpan/Newsday RM (Getty Images)

A string of mysterious drone sightings over the East Coast of the U.S. has provoked a lot of anxiety about where they’re coming from and who’s flying them. A coalition of government agencies, however, said Tuesday that there’s nothing to worry about.

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“Having closely examined the technical data and tips from concerned citizens, we assess that the sightings to date include a combination of lawful commercial drones, hobbyist drones, and law enforcement drones, as well as manned fixed-wing aircraft, helicopters, and stars mistakenly reported as drones,” reads a joint statement from the Department of Homeland Security, the Federal Bureau of Investigations, the Federal Aviation Administration, and the Department of Defense.

“We have not identified anything anomalous and do not assess the activity to date to present a national security or public safety risk over the civilian airspace in New Jersey or other states in the northeast,” the statement continues.

Over the weekend, Homeland Security secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said that the increase in sightings might be in part due to a change in FAA policy last year allowing for more nighttime flights.

“In September of 2023, the Federal Aviation Administration, the FAA, changed the rules so that drones could fly at night,” Mayorkas said. “And that may be one of the reasons why now people are seeing more drones than they did before, especially from dawn to dusk.”

President-elect Donald Trump, whose New Jersey golf club was where the clusters of drones were spotted, accused the government of covering up the true nature of the aircraft at a press conference on Monday.

“Something strange is going on,” he said. “For some reason they don’t want to tell the people, and they should.”