New Jersey Drone Sightings May Not Be Drones. By Professor Will Austin.

[Meta4]

for sure, we were lied to.

What was the lie you were told?

 

[Chip]

In December, White House Communications Adviser John Kirby said “many” drones were actually lawfully operated manned aircraft that pose no national security or public threat. He did not disclose that the drones had been authorized by the FAA. Similarly, when U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said the federal government has "deployed additional resources, personnel, technology" to assist the state police in tracking down the drones to help allay resident fears over the drones, he never said that the drones were authorized by the FAA.

There has been no official explanation as to why the FAA failed to tell New Jersey law enforcement, elected officials, as well as the public, that they had authorized all the mysterious drone flights before the White House statement Tuesday. There was also no explanation why, if the FAA had authorized the flights, the agency then placed temporary flight restrictions over parts of New Jersey for "special security reasons." The restrictions prevented any unmanned aircrafts from operating below feet within a nautical mile of the airspace.

When the swarms of drones were first reported over New Jersey in November, state police, as well as local law enforcement, scrambled to track and monitor the drones and often questioned why they were unable to find where the drones were launching from or where they landed. The FBI launched an investigation into the drone sightings after the New Jersey State Police reported seeing a large drone in the sky.

Monmouth County Sheriff Shaun Golden expressed "extreme disappointment with the Federal Aviation Administration'' in a post on Facebook, noting that the drone activity "caused widespread panic and fear among residents.” "The unexplained drone activity led to significant public concern with residents, members of law enforcement, state, federal and local authorities scrambling for answers,'' Golden said on the post.

"The FAA's lack of transparency regarding the nature of the operation heightened alarm and created unnecessary anxiety in the community. It led to a waste of taxpayer resources to track and chase down suspicious reports.'' “It’s absurd that the Administration flat out lied to the American people for months about this,” said Assemblyman Paul Kanitra. “They continually tried to tell everyone they were seeing things and nothing was going on, when they knew what it was all along."

Sheriff Golden called on Congress to implement reforms to ensure transparency and collaboration with state and local authorities in future operations. “Residents of New Jersey were subjected to weeks of fear and uncertainty, with no clear communication on or explanation at the time,'' Golden said. "For the FAA to now claim this was for 'research' shows a complete disregard for the trust and safety of our communities.''

 

[Chip]

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[Chip]

Imagine the vast amount of time and money wasted on the FAA's secret research experiment.

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[Droning on and on...]

The politics will... do it's thing.

I'm happy to have an explanation, and relieved it's benign.

 

[Droning on and on...]

Imagine the vast amount of time and money wasted on the FAA's secret research experiment.

Not sure if this is what you meant, but my first thought was a psy-ops experiment by the FAA to see how the public would react to large-scale suspicious drone activity, so of course they couldn't say anything!!

I'm certainly not claiming that, just an interesting idea.

 

[mavic3usa]

This is how he chose to end his official career in Washington on this note:

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[Meta4]

This is how he chose to end his official career in Washington on this note:

So where's the lie?

 

[Chip]

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[Photo Booth]

<-------- That is for all of the people who thought New Jersey residents were imagining things.

Mark

 

[Chip]

The politics will... do it's thing.

I'm happy to have an explanation, and relieved it's benign.

Wait up...are you not curious what secret experimental research the FAA was conducting that was so important that it warranted gaslighting the entire American public?

 

[Photo Booth]

Wait up...are you not curious what secret experimental research the FAA was conducting that was so important that it warranted gaslighting the entire American public?

Try again... The reports don't say the FAA was doing secret research. The FAA was simply AWARE of "research" that was taking place and had approved it.

The likelihood is HIGH that the company that received FAA approval for operating in New Jersey airspace was ZipLine, which began operating a drone delivery testing facility in New Jersey in early November and proceeded to fly large drones for the next several months, including at night.

Everything is NOT a conspiracy.

Mark

 

[Chip]

Try again... The reports don't say the FAA was doing secret research. The FAA was simply AWARE of "research" that was taking place and had approved it.

The likelihood is HIGH that the company that received FAA approval for operating in New Jersey airspace was ZipLine, which began operating a drone delivery testing facility in New Jersey in early November and proceeded to fly large drones for the next several months, including at night.

Everything is NOT a conspiracy.

Mark

I never used the word conspiracy. I said secret (which it was) experimental (which it was) research (which is the word the FAA used). But let us not worry about semantics. I will change the question: are you not curious what "research" the FAA was conducting that was so important that it warranted gaslighting the entire American public?

 

[Photo Booth]

I never used the word conspiracy. I said secret (which it was) experimental (which it was) research (which is the word the FAA used). But let us not worry about semantics. I will change the question: are you not curious what "research" the FAA was conducting that was so important that it warranted gaslighting the entire American public?

Again... The reports don't state the FAA was doing research. A completely different entity (or entities) were doing "research", which the FAA had approved.

The FAA isn't a research and development agency. The FAA is a REGULATORY agency. The fact that you do not understand the difference speaks for itself.

There is no boogieman. A company (probably ZipLine) was benignly testing large drones in New Jersey airspace, with FAA approval. It's simple and does not even qualify as "mysterious". Myself and others tried to be voices of reason in these threads. But reason and common sense aren't as "entertaining" as conspiracies. Some crave the entertainment.

Mark

 

[Droning on and on...]

Wait up...are you not curious what secret experimental research the FAA was conducting that was so important that it warranted gaslighting the entire American public?

Where did I say I wasn't?

I meant nothing more by what I said than what it said.

 

[Droning on and on...]

Try again... The reports don't say the FAA was doing secret research. The FAA was simply AWARE of "research" that was taking place and had approved it.

The likelihood is HIGH that the company that received FAA approval for operating in New Jersey airspace was ZipLine, which began operating a drone delivery testing facility in New Jersey in early November and proceeded to fly large drones for the next several months, including at night.

Everything is NOT a conspiracy.

Mark

If so (and I hope it is, I LOVE Zipline ), then the reports by the general public were true, people were seeing increased activity and big drones, etc.

Departing from the controversy for a moment, again if it was Zipline it's really quite awesome that the testing, at night, apparently went perfectly with no serious incidents.

For those of you that don't know, Zipline’s drones fly autonomously, deconflicting airspace on their own and talk to each other. I don't know, but I'll bet Zipline is using RID, and it would be an example of RID being used for what it was actually created for. If my generous helping of speculation is on target.

 

[Photo Booth]

ZipLine was "hiding" its new New Jersey drone test facility in plain sight. It's was so secretive, ZipLine employees posted about it on X (formerly known as Twitter).

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Notice that the opening of the facility (early November) coincides with the timing of the increase in reported drone sightings in New Jersey airspace.


Mark

 

[Droning on and on...]

The FAA isn't a research and development agency. The FAA is a REGULATORY agency. The fact that you do not understand the difference speaks for itself.

That was uncalled for. Please keep it civil.

I don't believe for one minute you actually thought he doesn't understand this.

 

[Photo Booth]

That was uncalled for. Please keep it civil.

I don't believe for one minute you actually thought he doesn't understand this.

He *doesn't* understand the difference, by his own admission. He wrote: "...are you not curious what "research" the FAA was conducting that was so important that it warranted gaslighting the entire American public?"

The FAA was not conducting the "research". The FAA APPROVED the "research" (testing). There is a large difference.

Mark

 

[Droning on and on...]

He *doesn't* understand the difference, by his own admission. He wrote: "...are you not curious what "research" the FAA was conducting that was so important that it warranted gaslighting the entire American public?"

I suggest you take a step back and get your annoyance under control.

This is a casual conversation on a public forum, not formal testimony under oath. As such, there are plenty of rhetorical liberties that occur, and people are not as precise as a technical seminar. A certain amount of generosity and forbearance must be applied in a friendly reading of another's statements.

I don't have to have anyone on this forum formally state they know the FAA is not a research agency. It's simply more than reasonable to assume so. Even when they're rhetorically sloppy.

So, I won't bother you again about it. there are two ways you could have chosen to respond to my post, you unfortunately chose hardening your position rather than trying to calm things down and get along.

Par for the course on the internet!