Updated 12/16 with DHS statements
The American public is growing more knowledgeable about the New Jersey Drone situation, but the people living in the area have been aware for a while now. We’ll break down the timeline of when these drones were first spotted, and everything we know about the who and when.
November 18th
New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy states this is the first day the New Jersey State Police started receiving calls about sightings.
December 4th
The drone situation starts to garner national attention from the media. The FBI asks for assistance from any residents who can share video of drone sightings.
December 10th
New Jersey Congressman Josh Gottheimer addresses the drone situation: “We can never play it too safe when fighting to protect Jersey families, especially from new technologies that have great potential but also can pose certain risks.”
Congressman Josh Gottheimer addresses the drone situation on December 10th
December 11th
Congressman Jefferson Van Drew releases a statement and appears on Fox News stating: “…the potential link of the drones flying over New Jersey to adversarial nations, such as Iran, and the urgent need to immediately take action to neutralize the threat.”
Deputy Pentagon Press Secretary Sabrina Singh addresses the drone situation: “At this time, we have no evidence that these activities are coming from a foreign entity or the work of an adversary.” She goes on to state that the drones are not U.S. military drones. Regarding Congressman Van Drew’s comments: “There is not any truth to that. 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.”
Sabrina Singh addresses the drone situation on December 11th
December 12th
The FBI released a joint statement with the Department of Homeland Security regarding the drones. “We have no evidence at this time that the reported drone sightings pose a national security or public safety threat or have a foreign nexus.” However, there is still no answer about the origins of the drones.
December 13th
New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy writes a letter to POTUS asking for help to resolve the issue and address the origins of the drones.
December 14th
The Department of Defense Joint Staff addresses the drone situation. “We have had confirmed sightings at Picatinny Arsenal and Naval Weapons Station Earle,” the spokesperson said. “This is not a new issue for us. We’ve had to deal with drone incursions over our bases for quite a time now. It’s something that we routinely respond to in each and every case when reporting is cited.”
“But … we don’t know. We have not been able to locate or identify the operators or the points of origin.” Still no information on the origins of the drones.
December 16th
The Department of Homeland Security releases a statement in response to the drone situation. “FBI has received tips of more than 5,000 reported drone sightings in the last few weeks with approximately 100 leads generated, and the federal government is supporting state and local officials in investigating these reports. Consistent with each of our unique missions and authorities, we are quickly working to prioritize and follow these leads. We have sent advanced detection technology to the region. And we have sent trained visual observers.”
The statement goes on to say: “…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.”
The statement seems to attempt to resolve this situation, and address citizens’ concerns.
We will continue to follow the timeline as the story unfolds.
