Residents have reported what appear to be drones flying ahead, sparking concerns about what the objects actually are and who is operating them. The FBI said Tuesday that it has looked into more than 5,000 tips so far, and found no evidence of any threat to the public. Federal officials have said many of the sightings were actually planes, stars, or legally-operated drones.
Westchester County Executive George Latimer says this kind of messaging from the federal government comes off as dismissive, and doesn’t go far enough to ease people’s minds. The Democrat, who will head to Congress to represent the 16th district in the new year, sent a letter to President Biden Wednesday.
"I would not be surprised if that investigation is already either underway or maybe even completed at some level," he notes. "To some extent, I think there needs to be just a public statement about what has come out of this, so that people would have some comfort."
Latimer says local governments are being inundated with 911 calls.
In Orange County, drone sightings shut down New York Stewart International Airport for an hour last week, prompting Governor Kathy Hochul to coordinate with the federal government and deploy a drone-detection system across the state.
Orange County Executive Steve Neuhaus, a Republican, says county officials are conducting their own investigations. He says state police and the Orange County Emergency Services office used smaller drones to surveil the skies Tuesday night.
“I think it’s a mixture of three things: I think there is a lot of misidentified planes. Then there are personally, private-owned drones that people are flying either out of curiosity or just to be part of the hype," says Neuhaus. "And then the third part of these mystery drones that people are looking for — and these are significantly large drones, they’re the size of a 300 Series BMW. So they’re the size of a midsized car, and that’s what we’re concerned about.”
Neuhaus says the major drones he’s observed appear to be coming from New Jersey, and now, at least, they are turning on thier lights whenever they get near Orange County airports. But he agrees that the federal government should be doing more to get in front of any misinformation or conspiracy theories.
“When they don’t give answers, the public starts filling in those blanks," he adds.
Officials say the rules around drones right now are kind of like the wild west. Not everyone has to register their drones with the Federal Aviation Administration, for example, and local agencies are limited in their ability to take down large drones if issues arise.
Speaking from Athens Monday, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said he is pushing legislation to help address that.
"We're gonna put legislation forward that says that our local authorities can be involved in citing and finding out what the drones are," said Schumer.
Latimer expressed support for Schumer’s proposal in his letter to President Biden. He says he’s not sure how quickly Congress will move on the issue before winter recess, but he intends to help when he is sworn in next month.
In the meantime, he urges anyone who sees a drone in Westchester County to write down where and when they saw it. The FBI is collecting tips online.
"Make notes about when and where you saw it and what its position was, so that we have something to track the sightings by," he explains. "If you see it but you don't write it down — and I did not write down what I saw, my sightings myself — but those could become important information to help the federal government track where they are."
