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Transportation Government United States

Two Drone Pilots Arrested Near Boston, and Drones Cause One-Hour Runway Closure at North New York Airport (go.com) 89

Saturday night two men were arrested near Boston "following a hazardous drone operation near Logan Airport's airspace," according to a police statement. They credit an officer "leveraging advanced UAS monitoring technology" who "identified the drone's location, altitude, flight history, and the operators' position." Recognizing the serious risks posed by the drone's proximity to Logan's airspace, additional resources were mobilized. The Boston Police Department coordinated with Homeland Security, the Massachusetts State Police, the Joint Terrorism Task Force, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), and Logan Airport Air Traffic Control to address the situation.
"Both suspects face charges of trespassing, with additional fines or charges potentially forthcoming."

Meanwhile on Friday night "Officials at Stewart International Airport, located roughly 60 miles north of New York City, said they shut down their runways for an hour," reports ABC News, after America's Federal Aviation Administration "alerted them that a drone was spotted in the area around 9:30 p.m." Though officials say flight operations weren't impacted during the closure, the article notes that New York's governor is now calling for federal assistance, including more federal law enforcement officers, saying "This has gone too far." [Governor Hochul] called on Congress to pass the Counter-UAS Authority Security, Safety, and Reauthorization Act, which would strengthen the FAA's oversight of drones and give more authority to state and local law enforcement agencies to investigate the activity.
The article explores the larger problem of Americans reporting drone sightings: Officials from a wide range of federal agencies spoke with reporters Saturday on a phone call and emphasized that the federal investigation into drone sightings in New Jersey is ongoing. One FBI official said that out of the nearly 5,000 tips they have received, less than 100 have generated credible leads for further investigation. A Department of Homeland Security official said that they are "confident that many of the reported drone sightings are, in fact, manned aircraft being misidentified as drones." The FBI official also talked about how investigators overlaid the locations of the reported drone sightings and found that "the density of reported sightings matches the approach pattern" of the New York area's busy airports including Newark-Liberty, JFK, and LaGuardia.

But, an FAA official says that there have "without a doubt" been drones flying over New Jersey, pointing to the fact that there are nearly a million drones registered in the U.S. "With nearly a million registered [unmanned aircraft systems] in the United States, there's no doubt many of them are owned and operated here within the state," the FAA official said... A Joint Chiefs of Staff official said that there have been visual sightings of drones reported by "highly trained security personnel" near Picatinny Arsenal and Naval Weapons Station Earle in New Jersey. The official said that they do not believe the sightings "were aligned with a foreign actor, or that they had malicious intent."

"We don't know what activity is. We don't know if it is criminal, but I will tell you that it is irresponsible," the official said. "Here on the military side, we are just as frustrated with the irresponsible nature of this activity."

Later ABC News reported that the FAA had imposed temporary drone flight restrictions in New Jersey over the Picatinny Arsenal military base. And they added that America's Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas "said the federal government is taking action to address the aerial drones that have prompted concern among New Jersey residents. "I want to assure the American public that we in the federal government have deployed additional resources, personnel, technology to assist the New Jersey State Police in addressing the drone sightings...." There have been numerous reports of drone activity along the East Coast since November. Mayorkas cited the 2023 change of a Federal Aviation Administration rule that allows drones to fly at night as to why there might be an uptick in sightings. "I want to assure the American public that we are on it," he said, before calling on Congress to expand local and state authority to help address the issue.

"It is critical, as we all have said for a number of years, that we need from Congress additional authorities to address the drone situation," Mayorkas said. "Our authorities currently are limited and they are set to expire. We need them extended and expanded... We want state and local authorities to also have the ability to counter growing activity under federal supervision," he added, echoing sentiments from local officials...

Addressing national security concerns the sightings have prompted, Mayorkas said the U.S. knows of no foreign involvement and that it remains "vigilant" in investigating the drone sightings. [ABC News anchor George] Stephanopoulos pressed Mayorkas about past security threats drones have caused, including the arrest of a Chinese national last week who allegedly flew a drone over an Air Force base in California. "When a drone is flown over restricted airspace, we act very, very swiftly," the homeland security secretary said. "In fact, when an individual in California flew a drone over restricted airspace, that individual was identified, apprehended and is being charged by federal authorities."

Two Drone Pilots Arrested Near Boston, and Drones Cause One-Hour Runway Closure at North New York Airport

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  • Good Lord. (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Randseed ( 132501 ) on Sunday December 15, 2024 @05:51PM (#65015561)

    I turned on Fox News and was watching some of the "outrage" and "alarm" about these "drones." Most of the videos that they were showing were obviously general aviation aircraft with nav and strobe lights on. Most of them also were at low altitude and had an obvious landing light on because they were... wait for it... wait for it... probably VFR and (gasp) landing. The most "convincing" one I saw was obviously from someone with a cell phone doing some kind of time lapse thing, kind of like when you shoot a track race and intentionally get a ghosted motion blur thing. That made the object look like Santa Claus' sleigh coming in for a landing.

    Now riddle me this: If you're going to do something nefarious with your "SUV-sized drone," why the hell do you have nav lights, beacons, strobe lights, and landing lights all activated so that you're lit up like a Christmas tree? Most likely a lot of this is some maladjusted pranksters taking advantage of this hysteria to get their LOLz. Like some assholes who flew over restricted areas or in various places' Class B.

    • >I turned on Fox News

      Why? Are you a boomer? No one cares about the MSM

      • >I turned on Fox News

        Why? Are you a boomer? No one cares about the MSM

        No, I'm not. It was various reasons, mostly in this case because it's where the people are freaking out. Sometimes you have to go for the low hanging fruit.

        • Re: (Score:2, Interesting)

          Sounds like a tiring and pointless activity to me, but I do things for entertainment that others would find wasteful, so, whatever. But my real point is that the MSM can bitch and whine all they want: it doesn't matter anymore.

      • No one cares about the MSM

        We do care about Rogan, Pool, Dore, and so on...

        Did you mean the former MSM? Which is now the Last-Resort Stream Media?

        When was the last time that someone on ABC/NBC/CBS/CNN/FOX did something on air that mattered? The last time when you were better off for having watched?

        It all fell apart a long long time ago. Most people cant put a finger on when the unraveling began. I can put a finger on it: Its when the official CBS defense against Dan Rather's fake document expose was that it was "Fake But True"

        • by Phact ( 4649149 )

          Dan Rather? ha ha! Oh you sweet summer child, how precious.

          • Dan Rather? ha ha! Oh you sweet summer child, how precious.

            One thing I've learned in my adulthood is that sometimes the older people have more experience. Sure, they may have older values, but they have the experience. I, too, was someone who blew off all the older people (who are now called "boomers" even though it's inaccurate) because I obviously knew better, and they were just old fogies who were trying to oppress me. Everyone does that, and it's part of human development. Then eventually you realize that maybe those "boomers" have a clue. Don't blindly follow

            • by Phact ( 4649149 )

              Somehow, sorry to say, you're wrong, I'm gen X, born in the 60's, and this shit's been going on longer than I've been aware of it. My own realizations came about in the 80's as a teen. That Dan Rather episode was quaint milquetoast compared to many of the other journalistic crimes committed before and since.

    • Re:Good Lord. (Score:5, Interesting)

      by ArchieBunker ( 132337 ) on Sunday December 15, 2024 @06:27PM (#65015609)

      The rumor among the smooth brain crowd is the government is trying to track down a "dirty bomb" using drones. Conveniently the special sensors can't operate in daylight and it's a top secret mission. So top secret that the government uses devices equipped with indicator lights. Nevermind that most highways, ports, border crossings, and toll roads already all have radiation sensors.

      Or if you've really been taking large doses of ivermectin, it's the government using drones to track UFOs.

      • What, no one is claiming that Iran is launching long range drones from a freighter in international waters off the NJ Atlantic coast anymore?

        • No, apparently the Iranian freighters aren't very stealthy and we know where all of the are. So it's a pretty boring conspiracy theory.
        • by sfcat ( 872532 )
          The current (actually sane) worry is that the drones in NJ are monitoring an ammo factory working on rounds for Ukraine. There already has been one incident of sabotage at that plant and it is thought that perhaps these drones are somehow related to attempts to hinder production. The drones in other places including here are probably largely just people overreacting. But the drones in NJ are large and there seem to be a constellation of them. But who knows. It would be trivial to fake such videos too.
          • Yeah but the feds claim that the tech they have on hand can't trace back to the operators, and it should be trivial to track them back to their launch site by tailing them with smaller drones or on the ground.

            For example, they already caught the drone operators that were flying drones too close to Logan airport.

      • I'm going to put my money on this being a simple penetration test.

        Answering the most important questions, when, where, and how were these things first detected?

        Even of no changes to detection methodologies and locations are made, it still tells us were to place defenses (defend at first contact)

        We are planning for WW3, probably because we intended to make it more likely. Any shit we are doing now was planned last year.
      • Or if you've really been taking large doses of ivermectin, it's the government using drones to track UFOs.

        God I wish this was true. A UFO invasion would be rad. Humans are too stupid to run this planet. Maybe the saucerfiends would be better at it lol. Damn you Occam and your sensible razor.

    • by quantaman ( 517394 ) on Monday December 16, 2024 @12:17AM (#65016001)

      I turned on Fox News and was watching some of the "outrage" and "alarm" about these "drones."

      Even more alarming, when those illegal drones make babies those baby drones will be US Citizens!!!

    • by mjwx ( 966435 )

      I turned on Fox News

      First mistake.

      was watching some of the "outrage" and "alarm" about these "drones." Most of the videos that they were showing were obviously general aviation aircraft with nav and strobe lights on. Most of them also were at low altitude and had an obvious landing light on because they were... wait for it... wait for it... probably VFR and (gasp) landing. The most "convincing" one I saw was obviously from someone with a cell phone doing some kind of time lapse thing, kind of like when you shoot a track race and intentionally get a ghosted motion blur thing. That made the object look like Santa Claus' sleigh coming in for a landing.

      Now riddle me this: If you're going to do something nefarious with your "SUV-sized drone," why the hell do you have nav lights, beacons, strobe lights, and landing lights all activated so that you're lit up like a Christmas tree? Most likely a lot of this is some maladjusted pranksters taking advantage of this hysteria to get their LOLz. Like some assholes who flew over restricted areas or in various places' Class B.

      Considerably less outrage on news sources that don't need to keep it's audience in a state of perpetual, impotent rage.

      However why assume malice when mere incompetence (let alone stupidity) will do.

      A DJI Mavic size drone will still cause a serious accident if it's in the wrong place at the wrong time... I.E. an engine intake on landing. The main reason that commercial aviation is so insanely safe is because we don't let cowboys who think like you run it. We have restricted that airspace

      • Take-off or landing. Drone strike can be lethal. Fuck the assholes playing with their toys around vehicles trying to lift or land hundreds of people with nothing but their functioning and ridiculously fragile engines between them and a grisly fucking death.
  • by mastazi ( 10280392 ) on Sunday December 15, 2024 @06:20PM (#65015599)

    Many years ago I used to be a journalist. My guess is that in America there are interest groups who would like to see a ban of DJI, the Chinese drone manufacturer which is currently a leader in this market. I think that this news cycle will be followed by some politician proposing a ban on grounds of national security (similar arguments to the Tik Tok ban).

    • Interesting news of the ban, I hadn't heard of it. DJI has been cleared for a few years for government projects. https://www.gpsworld.com/dji-d... [gpsworld.com]

      • Maybe my previous comment wasn't worded right, I'm not claiming that I know something! It is just a wild guess and I'm probably wrong.

    • I wouldn't jump to that conclusion. News like this comes out every few years. It does the circle for a few days and then everyone forgets about it.

      Not everything is some pretense to government action - though I admit sometimes things are. The issue is, so far DJI has complied with all new regulations for drones introduced in various countries, so how can you use this as a pretense to ban one specific good acting vendor?

      • so how can you use this as a pretense to ban one specific good acting vendor?

        Uh, heh. Has it been comfy under that rock? ;)
        Allow me to introduce you to the Protect Fragile American Thought Act... I mean Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act.

      • As I said above, it's a wild guess and I might be wrong.
        However, if you look at recent news related to tech and US-China relations, you have to admit that today's political climate presents the perfect conditions for a DJI ban and that would probably receive bipartisan support.
        So, it's not that unlikely IMHO

  • by ZipNada ( 10152669 ) on Sunday December 15, 2024 @06:35PM (#65015621)

    "It is critical, as we all have said for a number of years, that we need from Congress additional authorities to address the drone situation," Mayorkas said. "Our authorities currently are limited and they are set to expire"

    Does this imply that the federal or state governments can't legally identify the drone operators? You can definitely buy tech these days that will locate the drone and the controller.

    • Re: (Score:1, Insightful)

      by Randseed ( 132501 )

      "It is critical, as we all have said for a number of years, that we need from Congress additional authorities to address the drone situation," Mayorkas said. "Our authorities currently are limited and they are set to expire"

      Yeah, Mayorkas who can't even figure out how to secure a border.

      • Maybe he has simply worked within the law, and done what is legally possible. He may also be legally hampered in the situation with the drones.

        • Why exactly should we entertain a discussion about regulating drones further when the problem with the dones in question is that they arent following regulations....

          Stop playing their hand.
          • by kenh ( 9056 )

            Why exactly should we entertain a discussion about regulating drones further when the problem with the dones in question is that they arent following regulations....

            It's the same argument the same people are making about gun ownership.

            Why exactly should we entertain a discussion about regulating [guns] further when the problem with the [guns] in question is that they arent following regulations....

      • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

        Yeah, Mayorkas who can't even figure out how to secure a border.

        You mean the border that Trump was supposed to secure?

        • Yeah, Mayorkas who can't even figure out how to secure a border.

          You mean the border that Trump was supposed to secure?

          Yep. That one. Failures all around.

          • 70-80% of all illegal crossers are apprehended.
            That's across almost 25,000 miles of border.
            This is up from around 35% during the Bush years.

            The border is more "secure" than it's ever been.
            If your beef is with all the brown people in the country, they didn't cross a border. They overstayed a visa.
            • The aggregate number is way higher than it was before Biden took office. That's not counting the ones he's literally flying in.
              • Way higher?
                The number of undocumented people in the US hasn't changed appreciably in the 21st century.
                Their population did drop during Obama and Trump's terms (more under Obama's) but they also increased at times during both of theirs.
                In terms of change-of-trend, Obama reduced illegal immigration by about 7x that of Trump.

                While the population has increased under Biden, it's still less than it was in 2008.

                Ultimately, the point of those numbers is to demonstrate that who is President doesn't have a who
          • by BranMan ( 29917 )

            It's even worse than that - in Trump's failed attempt to add walls, he nevertheless started the process. First steps? Build roads into insolated areas in order to get crews and materials out there to *build* the wall.

            So, without building the walls, Trump *did* add all kinds of convenient roads for boarder crossers to use once they reach our side of the boarder. Way to go Don!

      • As opposed to a legislative body that can't manage to pass legislation?

        Can we at least put blame where it matters and not dump red herrings all over the place?

    • by dgatwood ( 11270 )

      "It is critical, as we all have said for a number of years, that we need from Congress additional authorities to address the drone situation," Mayorkas said. "Our authorities currently are limited and they are set to expire"

      Does this imply that the federal or state governments can't legally identify the drone operators? You can definitely buy tech these days that will locate the drone and the controller.

      It implies that they want more power and money and authority, and they're using this as an excuse, even though it looks very much like a non-story.

  • Motive: Curiosity (Score:4, Informative)

    by laughingskeptic ( 1004414 ) on Sunday December 15, 2024 @09:34PM (#65015839)
    The "hazardous drone operators" were on a city-owned island 2 miles from Boston Logan that has abandoned historical military gun batteries on it. The island is now primarily used for summer camps, so was likely "officially closed" at the time they decided to checkout the island as part of boating excursion.

    The FAA rules state drone operators have to stay 5 miles away from airports. Most people have no clue just how large the exclusion area for an airport is. All of Boston, its entire harbor, Everett, Revere, Somerville and most of Cambridge are in the Logan exclusion zone. I'm sure thousands of drones a day are routinely flown in these areas.

    The police put a whole lot of effort into tracking down common people using drones in a common way and are way too proud of running one case to ground. They also seem to want to turn this into some sort of conspiracy by mentioning that another boat was seen leaving the area ... it's Boston Fucking Harbor.

    Motive isn't mentioned because this is much ado about nothing.
    • by flink ( 18449 )

      Much like how every box with a wire sticking out of it was a bomb post-9/11, I would not be surprised if this drone thing turns out to be a case of mass hysteria with just a tiny seed in reality. Maybe a few chucklefucks flew drones where they shouldn't for either malicious or just stupid reasons, and now everyone is jumping at shadows and every low altitude GA flight on landing approach is another nefarious drone.

      • by gtall ( 79522 )

        I rather like the report from a congressman who claimed there were "reports" of the drones going to and fro an Iranian mothership in the Atlantic Ocean. Too bad we couldn't launch him in a dingy and tell him to not come back until he's found the mothership.

        There are the congressional Republicans who have started to whine the Military is not protecting us from these nefarious drones, and somehow know more than they are saying because they are saying there is no threat and it happens all the time, just good o

      • That's kind of the vibe I was getting. Mass hysteria triggered by a few chucklefucks.
        As I started reading about car-sized drones, that pretty much confirmed it for me.
        These people are identifying every light in the sky as a drone, including the very much manned vehicles all around them at all times.
    • Can we also agree that the "leveraging advanced UAS monitoring technology" to catch these hobbyists...er 'possible state sponsored actors' was just the normal Standard Remote ID process. i.e. the piloting dudes didn't think they were doing anything wrong, had their ID's broadcasting, and that's the advanced tech used to triangulate them.

      All of this...for a couple clueless operators.

      The Boston Police Department
      Homeland Security
      Massachusetts State Police
      Joint Terrorism Task Force
      Federal Communications Commi

      • A day or two ago the former governor of Maryland was freaking out after he noticed that some stars are bright. (Seriously. He posted a video on Twitter of Orion.) https://x.com/GovLarryHogan/st... [x.com]
      • the piloting dudes didn't think they were doing anything wrong

        When it comes to law, ignorance of the law is not an excuse. And it is people like these that ruin it for hobbyists that do follow the law, this incident will probably cause further restrictions on the model airplane hobbyist - all because someone with a toy drone didn't think while playing.
  • Potential scenario (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Alascom ( 95042 ) on Monday December 16, 2024 @11:26AM (#65016985)

    I am both a private pilot, as well as an FAA approved commercial drone pilot, as well as former military member where I assisted in counterespionage. I only provide this as background experience, not as authority.

    I have totally dismissed all this paranoid mess for quite a while. However, as I've listened to the public statements from DHS, FAA, FBI, military, etc. as well as listening to the (non-crazy, non-idiot) reports that have been documented, I've slowly become more concerned.

    The only thing that seems (to me) to fit everything would be the U.S. Gov having received reliable intel that something highly undesirable came in through a NJ port. The Government is quietly trying and located it without alarming the public.

    It is entirely likely that 99% of politicians and Gov't folks do not have a clue what is going on. That is how a TS-SCI program works (top secret - secret compartmentalized information). TS-SCI comes into play whenever there is highly sensitive information that could pose a significant threat to national security if released, sometimes this is special intelligence, sometimes this is tasking orders, and sometimes it is active field operations.

    A number of sightings can be dismissed fairly easily in my view. Others cannot. The interesting public reports have been the low flying "SUV sized drones" with loud motors, as this indicates something similar to a Boeing CAV which weighs in at 600lbs or 1100lbs with a large payload. Amateurs do not fly these. These are intended for serious work and cost millions of dollars each. The reports of these flying patterns at low altitude likely indicate they are being used as sensor platforms. Photo or video make no sense at night. Low altitude doesn't make sense for RF scanning. Scanning for radioactive material however seems entirely plausible.

    Last year there was a similar use of drones and vehicles carrying specialized equipment to locate and recover radioactive colbalt-60 that was discovered missing in Western Australia.

    Given that the sightings started around NJ and recently expanded to the surrounding States, this sounds a lot like a coordinated search that started at the ports and has now expanded. The search is being done at night, when air traffic is lightest, public is sleeping, and drone lighting make capturing clear photos difficult (not necessarily intentional).

    It really appears to me that there could (and I stress COULD) be intel of an NBC threat (nuclear, biological, chemical). I do not factually know this, nor I do not have any inside sources. That said, when a reasonably intelligent person considers the totality of the available information and apply Occam's razor, it seems reasonable. The State of global affairs and politics only increase these concerns.

    Apologies for anyone thinking I'm spreading conspiracy theories, but I am sincerely open to any other rational ideas that consider all the available data and provide a more logical result.

  • by nehumanuscrede ( 624750 ) on Monday December 16, 2024 @11:39AM (#65017025)

    Stupid people are why we can't have nice things and / or so many regulations that owning said nice things is pointless.

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