‘Sometimes they were solid white light, others flashed of red and green,’ Sen. Andy Kim said.
Sen. Andy Kim (D-N.J.) said he saw multiple drones flying over New Jersey during an overnight patrol, while federal officials have not been able to determine their origin.
The FBI, White House, and Department of Homeland Security (DHS) have stressed that the drones do not pose a national security threat, while the Pentagon denied claims from a New Jersey representative that the drones were Iranian in origin.
In a lengthy thread, Kim wrote that he “went out with local police to spot drone[s] flying over New Jersey” on Thursday evening, adding that he and the officer witnessed “lights moving low over the tree line.”
“Sometimes they were solid white light, others flashed of red and green,” he wrote on social media platform X.
The officer told him that officials have “tried to get closer with use of a helicopter but that the drones would turn off the lights and go dark if approached,” Kim said.
Later, he went to Hunterdon County, a more rural part of New Jersey, Kim wrote. He added that it’s not clear to him “why it’s one of the more active area for reported activity” for drones.
In a separate video statement, Kim said that he sees there are “four or five” drones flying “at any given time” in Hunterdon County. In a separate clip in the video, he said he saw five or six drones flying over North Hunterdon High School.
“I know it’s something that’s alarming a lot of people,” Kim said of the drone sightings in recent weeks.
Rep. Chris Smith (R-N.J.) said this week that a Coast Guard commanding officer told him a dozen drones closely followed a Coast Guard lifeboat near Barnegat Light and Island Beach State Park in Ocean County over the weekend.
“Now, that, to me, is very, very—not just suspicious—provocative, and this could be a foreign power, whether it be [Russian President Vladimir] Putin, or it could be [Chinese Communist Party leader] Xi Jinping in China, or the Middle East, we can’t rule any of that out,” the congressman told Fox News.
The FBI and DHS told The Epoch Times on Thursday that the drone sightings do not pose a national security or public safety threat, while both agencies are still investigating the matter with local police in New Jersey. They also stressed the drones do not “have a foreign nexus,” after Rep. Jeff Van Drew (R-N.J.) and several local lawmakers alleged the drones may be from Iran or possibly China.
On Thursday, White House national security spokesman John Kirby also dismissed that the drone sightings were a national security threat. Both Kirby and federal law enforcement officials said that some of the drones are actually “manned aircraft.”
“Upon review of available imagery, it appears many of the reports of sightings are actually manned aircraft that are being operated lawfully,” Kirby told reporters on Thursday.
Neither the FBI, the DHS, nor Kirby have provided details to support that the drones are not a threat or that some are manned aircraft. They also have not provided information on who may be behind the drones.
The statements from the government agencies have not prevented lawmakers in the northeastern United States from calling for more information.
“The potential safety and security risks posed by these drones in civilian areas is especially pertinent considering recent drone incursions at sensitive military sites in and outside of the continental United States over the past year,” senators from New Jersey and New York said in a joint statement.
Earlier in the week, Rep. Jeff Van Drew (R-N.J.) suggested in multiple media interviews that the drones could be from an Iranian “mothership,” or possibly be Chinese. A Pentagon spokeswoman denied the claim that Iran is launching the drones from a ship off the East Coast and also denied the unmanned aircraft are being flown by the U.S. military.
The flying of drones for recreational and commercial use is legal in New Jersey, but it is subject to local and Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) regulations and flight restrictions. Operators must be FAA certified.
One drone expert said that reports of large drones flying over New Jersey may be overblown.
“There are certainly big drones, such as agricultural drones, but typically they are not the type you see flying around in urban or suburban spaces,” John Duesler, president of the Pennsylvania Drone Association, said on Thursday.
The organization, which has about 350 members, is headquartered in Pittston, Pennsylvania.
“I wonder a little bit if it’s sort of a type of fish story, as in ‘I caught a fish this big’ type of a thing,” Deusler said. “At night, it’s hard to see how big the drones are, especially because they can be either closer or further away from you. To get that perspective of how big they are is really difficult.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.