A New Jersey mayor warned on Tuesday that the mysterious drone sightings reported in recent weeks could potentially be linked to radioactive material that went missing earlier this month.
During a Tuesday interview on Fox 5’s “Good Day New York,” Belleville Mayor Michael Melham suggested that the mysterious drones seem to be “looking for something.”
When asked about his thoughts on the increase in drone sightings across New Jersey and other states after participating in a phone call with the White House and other mayors, Melham said, “Information has not been forthcoming, and it’s this lack of transparency, in my opinion, that’s doing nothing but fueling conspiracy theories online.”
“I can tell you what it’s not,” Melham added. “We know for a fact it’s not little green men, and more than likely, it’s not a foreign adversary, because they would be able to figure out how to turn off the blinking lights.”
Melham explained that the drones spotted over New Jersey are “huge,” adding that one mayor claimed he saw “six-foot drones hovering over his house.” However, despite the increased reports of drone sightings, the New Jersey mayor said the federal government keeps dismissing the concerns and attributing the sightings to “misidentification.” Nevertheless, Melham told Fox 5, “I can assure you that we are seeing drones in New Jersey all over the place.”
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Melham added, “We have drones flying in a grid-like pattern. In my opinion, they’re looking for something. What might they be looking for? Well, potentially, we’re aware of a threat that came in through Port Newark. Maybe that’s radioactive material.”
During Tuesday’s interview, Melham referenced an alert issued by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission regarding a piece of medical equipment identified as a “Ge-68 pin source” that was “lost in transit” on December 2.
“There was, and there is an alert that’s out right now that radioactive material in New Jersey has gone missing on December 2,” the New Jersey mayor said. “It was a shipment. It arrived at its destination. The container was damaged, and it was empty.”
The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s recent alert noted that the missing piece of medical equipment contained less than a category three level of radioactive material.
The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission added, “Sources that are ‘Less than IAEA Category 3 sources,’ are either sources that are very unlikely to cause permanent injury to individuals or contain a very small amount of radioactive material that would not cause any permanent injury.”
