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New York|Unidentified Drones Light Up New Jersey’s Skies, Baffling Residents
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/12/07/nyregion/new-jersey-drones.html
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People across the state have reported seeing scores of large, low-flying objects in recent weeks. Officials haven’t said where they’re coming from, or why they’re here.
Dec. 7, 2024Updated 7:52 p.m. ET
Brightly lit against a dark night sky, the low-flying object wasn’t a star, and it wasn’t moving like a plane or a helicopter.
Kat Dunbar spotted the strange object early one night several weeks ago while driving home with her children, and she was stumped.
“I was like, ‘What is that? Is that a U.F.O.?’” said Ms. Dunbar, a 37-year-old acupuncturist and mother of three. “And we watched it the whole way home.”
Then, she said, she thought nothing more about it. Until earlier this week, when similarly bright, large and buzzing objects began flying low over her home in Bedminster, N.J.
They were drones, she realized. And since then, she said, they have been back every night. Usually she and her husband, Nick Dunbar, see the first drone not long after sunset. Then they keep coming, one after another: sometimes five or more, following the same flight path.
“In the last week, it became a little bit of a menacing and, like, creepy thing,” Ms. Dunbar said.
Ms. Dunbar is not alone. Drone sightings have been reported in at least 10 New Jersey counties since mid-November. They have been spotted flying over important infrastructure, like reservoirs, power lines and railroads, in people’s backyards and above highways. They often fly in groups and emit a loud humming noise that Mr. Dunbar, 39, described as similar to the sounds made by electric cars. The drones appear to be significantly larger than those widely available to hobbyists.
