Title says it all. I see a lot of chatter, but what’s going on?
Probably a new weapons system test. Maybe surviellance related.
The media and governments attempt at districting us from Luigi the working class hero
They’re probably trying to ban drones before regular people realize that they can be used to drop things on the elite.
I’m not advocating that anyone do that. I’m just saying it’s been proven to be a very successful tactic in Ukraine. And apparently arms are being attached to drones by the IDF. So that’s a thing too. But don’t do that either.
The short version;
- There was probably a legit sighting of a few drones at some point. (Its a pretty regular occurrence).
- It got amplified by a few people.
- News media amped it up more
- People started looking up in the sky at night and not knowing what they were looking at.
- MANY many reports of drones are just regular air traffiic, or planets, or stars.
- More people started looking. Some of then launching their own drones to look at the drones.
- And it just kinda snowballed from there.
TLDR; People looking at the sky for the first time discover its full of lights from various sources which they can’t id.
Note: I do find it rather amusing how many people apparently can’t ID an aircraft flying overhead or know what an out-of-focus star looks like. I guess theres always new people learning new things. Just wouldn’t have put those two things on my list.
Edit: A fair bit of it is the usual “Aliens” people making noise, and im sure there are plenty of others farming engagement for $$$. I don’t think we are going to get a clear picture for a while. We will have to wait for the hype / hysteria to die down before we get any reasonable assesment.
The conspiracy bullshitters also tend to find links between sightings that aren’t there. Let’s say there’s some Russian recon drones over European military bases to spy on Ukrainian training. Then they’d immediately claim that there’s “drones” (in their worlds that’s literal aliens) all around the globe, even though those scout drones have nothing to do with what is being seen elsewhere.
I do believe there’s some US drones being tested in somewhat publicly though, because the press release wordings were very deliberate, but that’s not really weird. I think the F-117 & B-2 were also often confused with UFOs when they were prototyping the planes.
I’m curious why especially the US tends to be so prone to mass hysteria events though. Just a matter of the country’s size encapsulating so many places & people?
MANY many reports of drones are just regular air traffiic, or planets, or stars.
Even the former leader of your United States of America, James Earl Carter Jr., thought he saw a UFO once. But it’s been proven he only saw the planet Venus.
Venus was at its peak brilliance last night. You probably thought you saw something up in the sky other than Venus, but I assure you, it was Venus.🛸👽🕶
Don’t forget that Russia seems to be more interested in western infrastructure, especially military infrastructure, recently.
Drones are pretty great to look at stuff, because they are hard to detect, hard to defend against and offer some plausible deniability, because there are actually idiots flying drones where they should not due to said idiocy.
Perhaps, but Russia also has satellites for that.
If Russia was doing spy drones, they would not be fitted with navigation lights flying on normal flight paths.
There is basically nothing that you’ll learn from flying a drone over New Jersey that you can’t learn from Google Earth.
It is divisive propaganda. Probably.
The US Government has said the drone sightings are not a hazard to air traffic nor do they pose a threat to national security. Many of the drones have been sighted around military installations and equipment which, given their “no-threat” official position they probably know what they are and either can’t or won’t say.
Based on the drone’s size (larger than some small manned aircraft flown by citizen pilots), observable flight time (2+ hours), altitude (above 400ft/~120m), and the number of them, they are almost certainly a registered and monitored commercial drone or a defense contractor test.
It’s likely propaganda because of it’s timing to the CEO shooting and the way in which the state(s), federal government, and media have been responding. A US senator claimed that they were from an “Iranian Mothership” off the coast of the United States. Governors have been giving the public’s curiosity an official voice. The (social) media has been amplifying the story because those companies have CEO’s who also have made their fortunes on screwing over regular folks.
I imagine from a certain perspective this all might sound like the conspiracy nut has stopped taking her meds, but it’s much more banal than that. Civil unrest is not good to maintain the status quo which is what governments and media organizations are (broadly) designed to do. Most of their efforts are not malicious; they’re really just trying to keep the peace.
tl;dr The drones are a distraction from the growing civil unrest for the subset of the population that is fantasy prone to get distracted by.
edit: My knowledge of aviation law seems to have been largely wrong. A response to this comment clarifies the rules and regulations regarding drones. Based on the information they shared, I still think the parts of the government that care about our airspace would be aware of craft the size and altitude of the drones sighted.
It’s also important to note that any aircraft above that ceiling would be on normal air traffic control screens and need to be licensed with the FAA (maybe there is an aviation nerd who could expand on or correct that)
Not really a “nerd” but:
In the USA:
Drones are not allowed more than 400 feet above ground level (you can increase altitude if the land starts going higher like on a mountain)
Drones can go more than 400 feet above ground level if you have a (part 107) license and is within 400 feet of a man made structure, up to 400 feet above the manmade structure. (Eg: You can fly 1000 ft if you are within 400 feet of a building and the building is 600 ft high, and you have a (part 107) license; 600 ft building height + 400 ft additional high you can go above = 1000 ft total limit).
Drones that fly within 5 miles of an airport require a LAANC approval (can be done online or via an app). Before the LAANC system existed, you used to not be able to legally fly drones anywhere within 5 miles of an airport (I mean, you could always do illegal flights, I’m sure some people did that).
Drones under 250 grams are not required to be registered nor require a license. (For recreational purposes) However, even for recreational purposes, you are supposed to take a “TRUST” certificate/test that basically is a “I Read The Rules” certificate that they don’t really keep track of.
Drones 250 grams or above require a registration that cost like $5 to do online. You’ll have to give them any serial numbers. And also mark the drone with a registration number that they give you. And again, if this is recreational only, you still don’t need a license, just register and have fun. (But the “TRUST” certificate is still a thing that you’re supposed to have)
If you use drones for any “commercial” purposes, regardless of the weight of drone you also need to register the drone, and also you need a (part 107) license when operating for commercial purposes. This includes using it for roof inspection for a company, or even for youtube videos that are monetized.
Also recent regulations require there to be a “Remote ID” system for drones that requires registration (basically drones under 250 grams that are used recreationally are exempt). This actively broadcasts a signal via bluetooth that authorities (or karens) can scan and would show the location it took off and the location where the remote is located.
Authorities probably could already do that before remote ID, but this just make it easier and more accurate.
Most manufacturers already have remote ID system added to new drones above 250 grams, and some manufacturers do not even allow you to disable it.
But for drones under 250 grams, manufacturers don’t bother with it, since its not required.
[Btw, I don’t think many people really care about FAA rules. They have this rule called “Line of Sight” rules basically you can’t fly further than your eyes can see it. Go on r/drones on reddit and basically nobody on that community follow this stupid rule. Aint nobody registering their toy drone lmao]
I wish I had more upvotes for you. Thank you for the clarification. I’ll edit my post to reflect that so as not to accidentally spread misinformation
Also, something I just remembered, the FAA has authority over all air space. If they really wanted to stop whatever is going on, they could just announce a new rule on tv and say “Temporary Flight Restriction (TFR) for unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) for all US airspaces effective [Date for Tomorrow] and lasts indefinitely” then start arresting people for TFR violations, they always do this whenecer the president and presidential candidates are moving around, this seems very likely its some military test flights. Theres no way they haven’t just ordered the FAA to impose restrictions if this is anything else.
Nobody seems to have an answer yet, you’re not out of the loop on this. This is the latest I’ve found, in terms of official statements. But frankly it seems like a pretty inadequate answer. The complete interview is full of language that makes it pretty clear they just really don’t know yet.
Mayorkas cited the 2023 change of a Federal Aviation Administration rule that allows drones to fly at night as to why there might be an uptick in sightings.