December is a month of twinkling lights and heavy air traffic, which seem to have collided in the most curious phenomenon of this holiday season: a sudden, unfounded panic that remotely controlled drones are patrolling the night skies up and down the eastern coast of the U.S. A month ago, law enforcement officials in northern New Jersey revealed that they were investigating reports of drones flying overhead at night, stressing in a statement that there was “no known threat to public safety.
” They also cautioned against believing or spreading rumors about the supposed sightings on the internet. “We encourage the public to be mindful that what they read online may not be accurate,” they wrote. The public did the opposite — and so have a number of politicians and pundits.
As more videos purporting to show mysterious drone activity circulated on TikTok , Facebook , and X (formerly Twitter ), thanks in part to dubious “breaking news” accounts, Rep. Tom Kean of New Jersey posted on X last week to express his “deep frustration regarding the growing concerns over drones operating in our skies” and called for federal agencies to investigate the issue. Sen.
Andy Kim of New Jersey on Friday ventured out with police to observe aerial lights above a reservoir in a rural area of the state, claiming in a thread of videos on X that some of them were executing “maneuvers that planes can’t do.” The next day, however, he walked this back , saying further analysis demonst.
