Mysterious New Jersey drones were ‘not the enemy’

The mysterious drones that lit up skies across the US late last year were authorised by federal regulators and “not the enemy,” the White House has announced.

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) had approved the drones for research and many also belonged to people in the area, President Donald Trump’s press secretary Karoline Leavitt said at her first White House briefing on Tuesday.

The drones were spotted in New Jersey and other nearby states in November and December and led to rampant online speculation about their origins and intentions.

Authorities never provided definitive answers about the sightings, saying only that they were not a danger to the public or national security.

“In time, it got worse due to curiosity,” Ms Leavitt said of the online rumours. “This was not the enemy.”

The statement, made at Ms Leavitt’s first official press conference for the Trump White House, is the most definitive statement yet that there was nothing nefarious about the phenomenon.

The previous Biden administration had also concluded there was likely no national security threat invovled.

Last December, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) said it received more than 5,000 drone sighting tips from concerned citizens.

Even former Maryland governor Larry Hogan reported that he saw dozens of drones over his home. New York’s governor touted the state’s drone detecting technology to worried residents.

The FAA then temporarily restricted drone flights over 22 cities through January.

The previous Biden administration had previously confirmed that residents had spotted drones as well as manned aircraft, but officials had stressed there was “no foreign involvement”.

The FAA regulates drone use and flights in the US. Nationally, more than one million drones are registered for use, according to the agency. About 409,000 are registered for commercial use, while about 385,000 are used recreationally.

In mid December, four federal agencies declared the investigators had “not identified anything anomalous” about the reports.

The sightings, they said, were actually a combination of lawful drones from hobbyists and law enforcement, as well as planes, helicopters and “stars mistakenly reported as drones”.