Two Drone Pilots Arrested Near Boston, and Drones Cause One-Hour Runway Closure at North New York Airport (go.com) 44
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."
"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."
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shouldn't they have this information before arresting the suspect?
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Motive isn't a requirement to arrest someone for a crime.
Good Lord. (Score:5, Interesting)
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.
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... freaking out over every kid that gets on their grass. All becoming more fearful ...
Even the small hobbyist drones are extremely dangerous around airports. They'll take out a jet engine if sucked in.
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Lots of things are dangerous
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>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.
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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.
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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"
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Dan Rather? ha ha! Oh you sweet summer child, how precious.
Re:Good Lord. (Score:4, Interesting)
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.
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What, no one is claiming that Iran is launching long range drones from a freighter in international waters off the NJ Atlantic coast anymore?
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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.
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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.
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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!!!
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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!!!
I think I've seen that movie... [imdb.com]
My guess: news cycle in preparation of DJI ban (Score:3, Interesting)
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).
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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]
Article is puzzling (Score:3)
"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.
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You can definitely buy tech these days that will locate the drone and the controller.
Nope. The military has such tech and they say its not working on these drones.
You'd think that if someone wanted to really be an asshole and prank around, maybe they could do something like spread spectrum. Probably this control is all line of sight, so with enough power it could be on almost any band. And that's assuming that whoever does it doesn't program an automated failsafe so if communication fails the drone still does its thing. I have a hard time believing this would be something like a network cri
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The cost of computation has been rapidly approaching $0 per operation for our entire lifetimes. How many raspberry pi's do you think are strictly necessary to watch a few sensors like a compass, gyroscope, accelerometer, and camera and therefore keep a pretty good reckoning (in fact, called dead reckoning) about recent movements?
Whats amazing is that our junk mail doesnt have tiny computers spying on us yet. Think about what class of computer is strictly ne
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"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.
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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.
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Stop playing their hand.
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Yeah, Mayorkas who can't even figure out how to secure a border.
You mean the border that Trump was supposed to secure?
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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.
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"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:2)
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,
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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.