Mysterious Drones flying over New Jersey and other places including the UK.

[KnopkaPixie]

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/12/07/nyregion/new-jersey-drones.html

What to make of this?

Apparently military grade drones have been spotted flying around the New Jersey skies at night in a decidedly unstealthy fashion.

Also reports have come in from the UK and Europe that similar craft have been observed in the airspace above military bases.

Are they trying out new kit in preparation for world war three? Is the Russians? Is it aliens? Is it too many beers on the back porch?

It seems that the New Jersey drones knocked it off on the day of Thanksgiving, which suggests to me that they were US military in origin.

Unless that's exactly what that dastardly Putin would want us to think, Captain Blackadder!

Or the aliens come in peace and stopped invading for a day as a mark of respect for local traditions.

I'm not sure anyone mentioned aliens, except you.

The audio recording mentions UFOs, because that is what they are. Unidentified flying objects.

If that's the case why do the ATCs keep saying they can't see it? Don't have a Scooby about all the tech flying stuff so am eager to learn?

Okayyyy….so that’s your only take away from my comment ????

Whatever was being seen in that specific encounter was transponder equipped, something that is not lacking in significance.

Is that comment more to your liking?

Good question..

Unless one or both aircraft were at a similar and low altitude (and it doesn’t sound like the traffic talking to ATC was) then that’s something I’m having a little difficulty with.

On the TCAS display onboard you only see aircraft transponding that are fairly adjacent to you (to avoid clutter on the display). ATC has much more of a world overview and AFAIK the controller sees everything that is using a transponder in their airspace. So if the crew see something on TCAS they would expect it to be visible to the controller as well.

There is something about that one particular conversation as presented that doesn’t quite add up but there may have been more to it we didn’t get to hear.

I think accuracy is important, and your comment about aliens risked detracting from the discussion.

US military drones have to be equipped with transponders. They are smaller than those of conventional aircraft, but do the same job. So I'm not sure what your point is?

@Begsthequestion

“I think accuracy is important, and your comment about aliens risked detracting from the discussion.”

Fair point.

”US military drones have to be equipped with transponders. They are smaller than those of conventional aircraft, but do the same job. So I'm not sure what your point is”

That’s is pretty much my the point.

Proclaiming (text/verbally) “ it’s on TCAS” without any explanation for the lay reader almost adds to the mystery….as in..”well it wasn’t just lights there was something there”…where the something can be, well you name it….

In reality a target displaying on the TCAS screen probably removes some of the mystery, and I’d suggest removes some of more esoteric options.

If something is displaying on TCAS it’s very compelling evidence that you are dealing with a conventional aircraft of some sort, fixed wing or rotary, manned or unmanned, who knows.

Hasn't there been a major meteor occurrence (Geminid) the last few days. Said to be slow moving and easily visible. So more lights in the sky for people to confuse with drones

Adds to the mix, along with other material up there.

FWIW earlier this year for several weeks there was a major rash of regular sightings of lights from flights eastbound over the Atlantic, early AM..

Some astronomy/spaceflight savvy pilots did a bit of analysis and it looks very much like that was down to a Starlink train, might have been a combination of two, can’t remember full details, in the early days of it’s dispersal.

Apparently the visual effects the satellites were producing were quite interesting…

more SUV sized drones:

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-14193771/Drone-crisis-sightings-California-New-Jersey-states.html?ico=articlepreviewwxpmobile

Convinced it's a silly hoax now.

If it is it needs exposing - it's getting a bit silly now really.

There’s a possibility the NJ outbreak started as a hoax/minor prank - I’m not sure we’ve ever really heard what started the ball rolling there, but I don’t think an actual physical hoax has been ongoing.

I suspect very strongly almost all the blame for the nonsense that has followed day one lies pretty much squarely in the lap of some in the media, not helped by politicians being politicians.

The sightings from in flight further west are a different issue and may well not fall into blatant hoax category..That said I’d still be very wary of automatically taking at face value anything off YouTube. That’s simply because it’s difficult to establish the exact provenance of every exchange and the inability to establish continuity of the same.

I know when I was working you would occasionally see aircraft at very long range at night, and the controller might not be immediately aware of the same (not in their area of responsibility) so if you asked about an light, etc, you might a “don’t know” initially and then maybe a few minutes later an answer.

The controller will certainly be in the dark when it comes to things like sightings of satellites (as mentioned upthread I’ve heard Starlink has caused some WTFs ) re-entering space debris and some military related activity outside civilian airspace.

It doesn’t help that people associated with the incoming administration are peddling outright conspiracy theories. Sometimes these things are best ignored, the Biden administration have said clearly they don’t consider there to be a threat, not sure any more detail is needed to be honest and it wouldn’t silence those inclined to believe such nonsense anyway.

The Orange One has spoken

In his defence, he is slightly less orange these days and I think Melania might have got a "Color Me Beautiful" specialist into Trump Tower.

They put the swatches over his shoulders and she got him to tone down his hair colour because he's really a "Cold Spring."

It's hard to tell whether the blood vessels in your wrist are green or blue what with the reflections off the gold bathroom facilities.

He is quoted as saying I'm the Coldest Spring, no spring is colder than me

A friend still working in aviation sent me this handy guide earlier... Don't know about NJ residents in general but many think some in the media have been using it for a few days now:

😂

Practising for Christmas and NYE drone displays. Like the corgi thing for the Platinum Jubilee.

Or something boring like that.

@notimagain 😂😂

Well I'm stuck down the rabbit hole good and proper lol.

The Independent is running a live feed about the issue.

Wright Patterson, a military air Base was shut down for a while due to drone activity.

Forces International have done a segment on it.

Honestly if it's a hoax or there is no nefarious intent then all the to-ing and fro-ing and bickering between various US authorities is just ridiculous.

Have seen the theory that it's to do with new regulations and restriction legislation and increasing the likelihood of extra controls being brought in. But this seems like overkill.

Also seen reference to "orbs" and "plasma" and lack of detectable heat signatures etc.

Had two taxi journeys this weekend and as most of our local drivers are pretty chatty introduced the whole subject to be met with nervous side eye as both drivers "don't watch the news".

As for Trump - well I tend to think of him as a tangerine nightmare, so no idea what to make of his pronouncements.

Bonkers, absolutely bonkers.

Forbes international that should say. Damn autocorrect.

And predictably Reddit is losing its mind entirely!!!

@MistressoftheDarkSide 😂 at you scaring the local cabbies 😂

It's one of my small pleasures in life these days 🤣