A national uproar surrounding unidentified drones being spotted along the East Coast hit close to home Saturday night with the arrests of two men on an island in Boston Harbor who were charged after flying devices too close to Logan.
Meanwhile, elected leaders from across the country amplified their demands for answers, even as the Biden administration insisted there was nothing to be worried about. The dismissals came despite the fact that there are few details behind the sightings that have so many people up in arms.
“There’s a lot of us who are pretty frustrated right now,” said Rep. Jim Himes, D-Conn., the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, during an appearance on “Fox News Sunday.”
“’We don’t know’ is not a good enough answer,” he said.
People in more than half-a-dozen states report seeing unexplained flying objects near their homes and hovering suspiciously close to U.S. military assets, with several supposed sightings around New Jersey over the last month and subsequently in New York, Massachusetts, Maryland, Connecticut, Virginia, and Pennsylvania.
Senior Biden administration officials said during a Saturday press call that they “don’t have any current evidence that there’s a threat to public safety.”
“There’s no question that people are seeing drones,” U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas told ABC’s George Stephanopoulos Sunday. “But I want to assure the American public that we are on it. We are working in close coordination with state and local authorities.”
In response to the burst of sightings, the FBI has established a hot line, and the senior officials said they’ve received over 5,000 tips, of which fewer than 100 could not easily be explained as normal aircraft operations. Those sightings are being investigated by the FBI and FAA and the investigations are ongoing, the officials said.
Despite the mystery, people may be panicking, a senior FBI official said, suggesting that many of the sightings are of the millions of legally owned and operated unmanned aircraft possessed by the general public.
“I think there has been a slight overreaction,” the official said during the press call Saturday.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, a New York Democrat, said Sunday that his constituents nevertheless have concerns about what they’re seeing overhead, and that they deserve answers.
“I’m pushing for answers amid these drone sightings. I’m calling for (Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas) to deploy special drone-detection tech across NY and NJ,” Schumer wrote. “And I’m working to pass a bill in the Senate to give local law enforcement more tools for drone detection.”
Schumer wants the federal government to use a recently declassified radio wave technology in New York and New Jersey. The radio wave detector can be attached to a drone or airplane and can determine whether another flying object is a bird or a drone, read its electronic registration, and follow it back to its landing place. Schumer said state and local authorities do not have the authority to track drones.
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul said a drone detection system is enroute to the state.
“This system will support state and federal law enforcement in their investigations,” Hochul said in a Sunday statement.
Considering there have been confirmed sightings at Picatinny Arsenal and Naval Weapons Station Earle “by highly trained security personnel,” the administration is taking the situation seriously, a senior Department of Defense official said.
“To date, we have no intelligence or observations that would indicate that they were aligned with a foreign actor or that they had malicious intent. But I just got to simply tell you we don’t know. We have not been able to locate or identify the operators or the points of origin,” they said.
New Jersey’s newly sworn in U.S. Sen. Andy Kim, after some drone hunting of his own late last week, said that he’s convinced most of what he saw in the sky is supposed to be there.
“Being responsive and transparent about a worry on people’s minds is the government’s responsibility. After more analysis and help from civilian pilots/experts and flight data, I’ve concluded the possible drone sightings pointed out to me were almost certainly planes,” he said via social media.
Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey said her administration is “monitoring the situation” and that drone operators have a responsibility to fly responsibly.
“(The Massachusetts State Police) is working together with local and federal partners, and they’re prepared to support federal authorities with jurisdiction over airspace,” Healey said Saturday.
On Sunday, the Boston Police announced that 42-year-old Robert Duffy of Charlestown and 32-year-old Jeremy Folcik of Bridgewater were arrested on Long Island, after an officer noticed a drone flying where it should not have been.
“The incident began earlier that evening, at 4:30 p.m., when a Boston Police Officer specializing in real-time crime surveillance detected an Unmanned Aircraft System operating dangerously close to Logan International Airport.
Leveraging advanced UAS monitoring technology, the Officer identified the drone’s location, altitude, flight history, and the operators’ position on Long Island,” the Boston Police Department said in a Sunday statement.
After rallying officials from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, the Massachusetts State Police, the Joint Terrorism Task Force, the Federal Communications Commission, and Logan Airport Air Traffic Control, the Boston Police Harbor Patrol Unit was dispatched to the Boston Harbor Islands, where they allegedly found Duffy and Folcik, along with another man on the closed Long Island Health campus.
All three attempted to flee on foot, according to police, but the arrested pair were caught and a drone found in their possession. The third man, according to police, is “believed to have fled the island in a small vessel.”
Police say that all three were engaging in seriously dangerous behavior.
“Operators are prohibited from flying drones over people or vehicles and must be aware of airspace restrictions. Even small drones pose significant risks, including the potential for catastrophic damage to airplanes and helicopters. Near-collisions can cause pilots to veer off course, putting lives and property at risk,” they said.
Both Duffy and Folcik will appear in Dorchester District Court on charges of trespassing, police said.
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