A series of incidents of large drones spotted flying over New Jersey in recent weeks, some of them near the President-elect’s golf course in Bedminster, has prompted a call for a limited state of emergency, which could temporarily bar such aircrafts from taking flight.
Sen. Jon Bramnick, a Republican who is running for governor, on Tuesday said that all drones should be banned from airspace over the Garden State — at least until “the public receives an explanation regarding these multiple sightings.”
“We got thousands of people worried about drones flying around and nobody knows why,” he told NJ Advance Media. “Stop all droning, especially drones the size of a Suburban.”
The Federal Aviation Administration said it first received reports of unauthorized drone activity on Nov. 18.
Since then, there has been no shortage of reports about “fixed-wing aircrafts” — sometimes in packs as large as eight — hovering over mid- and northern New Jersey. Many of them also appear to be bigger than drones typically used by hobbyists, sparking concern given the sightings near Donald Trump’s National Golf Club in Bedminster and the Picatinny Arsenal Military Base in Rockaway.
Earlier this week, New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy reiterated that the mysterious drone clusters do not pose any threat to the public. His comments came after 21 mayors and other elected officials called on him to more proactively address the sightings.
Murphy previously said he’d met with members of the federal Department of Homeland Security including Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, state police and members of the Garden State’s congressional delegation to “discuss reported drone activity over parts of North and Central New Jersey.”
He added: “We are actively monitoring the situation and in close coordination with our federal and law enforcement partners on this matter.”
