Addressing the eleph....ummm, Drones in the Sky

[Lambykins]

Okay, now that the New Topic glitch is fixed...
I expected to see this topic way before now, but here we go...
New Jersey, drones.
What is going on?
We have all seen the reports. Now the drones have been seen in other states as well...
Put your best theory forward!
From all the reports and delving into conspiracy sites online...
In no order of importance:
1) Aliens (no explanation as to why aliens targeted New Jersey)
2) Mistaken identity (actually small fixed wing manned aircraft. THOOUSANDS of mistaken identity cases)
3) Foreign government incursions/surveillance (various govts named...Iran, China, Russia, etc)
4) US Government "Sniffer" Drones (looking for missing nuclear material)
5) Private Drone Operators being assholes
6) Some combo of the above, plus toss in natural phenomena of some sort.

I have seen loads of videos.
Also online you can find copies of the flyers sent to municipalities by the FBI cautioning against trying to shoot the drones down and also stating to stay 300 feet away from any crashed drones and to call FBI immediately if a crashed drone was found.

I have seen some weird videos of the drones, plus now we are seeing videos of *orbs*, which look (to me) like ball lightning, but with direction and intent....perhaps sentience. Some of the videos were taken by a news crew reporting on the drones.

So...what 'cha think? 

[Anianna]

As per point 2, a lot of people on social media have made it very evident they can't tell the difference between a drone and commercial or private airplanes, so probably best for everybody to heed that advice not to shoot at drones.  

I initially believed the drones are just another version of weather balloons in that they are very likely being used by educational facilities or organizations to collect various environmental and geographical data, but I don't know why the government would be all like "We don't know whose they are, but they're not dangerous" rather than just saying they're for educational purposes.  

Without further information, I don't care to speculate what they really are, but I have a feeling they're just a big nothingburger and a lot of the videos going around are faked or unrelated.  I've seen some claiming old videos are new footage of these drones and I've seen some idiots claim a prop tie fighter on a rig was a drone on the way to the FBI (I believe it was initially posted as a joke, but several people reposted it seriously). 

[NT2C]

• A few people watch someone's drone flying at night and mention it to other people
• The guy has fun, doesn't know people were watching and invites a friend to fly their drone with them
• Story of the drones spreads two ways, one amongst other operators who come out to fly too, and also with the general public who all start looking for drones at night
• For the most part, the general public can't tell a drone at night from a jumbo jet so reports increase dramatically
• News media gets hold of the story and runs with it
• What had been confined to just one area now spreads in other areas, rinse, lather, repeat
• Authorities get involved and some operators quit flying out of fear but others take it as a dare and now launch veritable swarms
• Congress gets involved and Congress critters, eager to get their face in the news come up with off the wall "facts" that only they are privy to (it's all secret you see, wink wink) to get more news attention
• Some poor kid in one of these areas is gonna get busted by the feds, rat on a few friends, and great news headlines will be written about this "Gang of Terror Drone Pilots" and their possible connection to any of 50 foreign governments or cartels
• Some other oddball news story will "break" and this story will vanish faster than the ones about that infamous laptop

[DarkAxel]

Some of the videos I watched were clearly helicopters or private aircraft flying around. Others were clearly drones. I identified one as the same type of octo-copter that Ukrainian solders use to drop RPG rounds on Russian targets: A DJI commercial drone available worldwide.

I think its a combination of military or agency drones, misidentification of regular aircraft, drone hoaxers, public hysteria, and possibly recon drones for one of our international enemies. I don't think NEST teams are involved. They have more subtle means of finding missing nukes.

[majorhavoc]

I vote 6) - some combination of the above, but with the exception of 1), 3) and 4).  Aliens would have to be an intelligent life form, so the location of sightings in New Jersey emphatically rules that out.   

Similar logic for eliminating 3), unless there's a secret military installation in the Garden State I'm unaware of that's of such monumentally high value that a foreign actor is willing to devulge their top secret surveillance capabilities just to get a peek at it.  

And 4)?  I'm betting the government has ways of tracking nuclear material that doesn't require randomly sniffing for it. And in any case if it's a broken arrow type of situation or even intel on a possible homeland nuclear threat, they'd be far more discrete about looking for it.

[NT2C]

Similar logic for eliminating 3), unless there's a secret military installation in the Garden State I'm unaware of that's of such monumentally high value that a foreign actor is willing to devulge their top secret surveillance capabilities just to get a peek at it. 

I had no idea your security clearance went that high!

 

[NT2C]

• A few people watch someone's drone flying at night and mention it to other people
• The guy has fun, doesn't know people were watching and invites a friend to fly their drone with them
• Story of the drones spreads two ways, one amongst other operators who come out to fly too, and also with the general public who all start looking for drones at night
• For the most part, the general public can't tell a drone at night from a jumbo jet so reports increase dramatically
• News media gets hold of the story and runs with it
• What had been confined to just one area now spreads in other areas, rinse, lather, repeat
• Authorities get involved and some operators quit flying out of fear but others take it as a dare and now launch veritable swarms
• Congress gets involved and Congress critters, eager to get their face in the news come up with off the wall "facts" that only they are privy to (it's all secret you see, wink wink) to get more news attention
• Some poor kid in one of these areas is gonna get busted by the feds, rat on a few friends, and great news headlines will be written about this "Gang of Terror Drone Pilots" and their possible connection to any of 50 foreign governments or cartels
• Some other oddball news story will "break" and this story will vanish faster than the ones about that infamous laptop

UPDATE: https://san.com/cc/trump-press-secretary-confirms-new-jersey-drones-were-authorized-by-faa/

"Many of these drones were also hobbyists, recreational and private individuals that enjoy flying drones," she added. "In time, it got worse due to curiosity. This was not the enemy."