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Video|Many Videos That Purport to Show Drones in New Jersey Likely Show Planes, Visual Analysis Finds
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/12/19/video/new-jersey-drones-planes-videos.html
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Starting in mid-November, a mystery began to take hold in northern New Jersey, when residents of Morris County began posting videos that appeared to show brightly lit flying objects hovering or soaring across the night sky, in some cases above their homes.
Many believed they were drones, and various theories followed, with people claiming they were part of secret government programs or even alien invasions. Within weeks, residents across several states began reporting hundreds of sightings, and posting videos and photographs of their encounters.
To better understand what some New Jersey residents have likely been seeing — as well as how perceptions of objects in the night sky can be distorted — The New York Times mapped local airports, tracked air traffic patterns and, along with aviation experts, analyzed hundreds of videos of aircraft purportedly filmed in or near Morris County in November and December.
The vast majority of the videos appeared to show planes or helicopters, moving across a part of the state that brims with airports. None of the videos analyzed by The Times conclusively showed drones, though in some cases that remains a plausible explanation.
One video in particular, filmed in Somerset County, N.J. and posted on Facebook on Dec. 4, is an example of how difficult it can be to deduce what an object might be. It shows a helicopter and a second flying object, purported to be a drone; experts were unable to determine exactly what the object was, although they said it resembled a plane.
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Northern New Jersey, where the first sightings occurred, is home to especially crowded airspace.
There are dozens of airports in the area, from major airports to smaller airports and private airstrips, along with other facilities like heliports. Many planes also use air routes to cross New Jersey without stopping.
Major airports Smaller airports Other facilities Air routes
A map that shows the locations of dozens of airports and other aviation facilities in and around northern New Jersey, along with major air routes.
Each dot here represents the positions reported by aircraft as they traversed New Jersey’s skies between sunset and sunrise on Dec. 10, Dec. 11, and Dec. 12 and Dec. 13.
Reported aircraft altitude, in feet
The map changes to show the reported locations of all flights in and around northern New Jersey.
Large and medium-sized airline, cargo and private jets make up the bulk of the reported air traffic in this area. They tend to follow closely-controlled routes and fly at high altitudes until they approach their destination. They’re required to reliably report their position.
Smaller planes and helicopters, seen below, fly at lower altitudes and often have less predictable routes. In Morris County, and much of the New York metro region, aircraft are required to report their positions due to airspace regulations around the large airports. In areas of the U.S. with different regulations, small aircraft may not publicly report their positions.
The map changes to show the reported locations of flights by small planes and helicopters in and around northern New Jersey.
Taken together, more than 2,500 flights crossed Morris County’s skies in this time period.
The map changes to show the reported locations of flights by large and medium-sized planes in and around northern New Jersey.
Data: Flightradar24, International Civil Aviation Organization and the Federal Aviation Administration.
Note: Dots showing aircraft positions were reported on Dec. 10, 11 and 12 between the hours of 4 p.m. and 7 a.m. the following day. Controlled airspace depicted near New York City is Class B airspace around the area’s major airports. The controlled airspace depicted around Lehigh Valley International is Class C airspace.
