A US senator has called for mysterious drones spotted flying at night over sensitive areas in New Jersey and other parts of the mid-Atlantic region to be “shot down, if necessary”, even as it remains unclear who owns the unmanned aircraft.
“We should be doing some very urgent intelligence analysis and take them out of the skies, especially if they’re flying over airports or military bases,” Senator Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut said Thursday, as concerns about the drones spread across Capitol Hill.
People in the New York region are also concerned that the drones may be sharing airspace with commercial airlines, he said, demanding more transparency from the Biden administration.
The White House said Thursday that a review of the reported sightings shows that many of them are actually manned aircraft being flown lawfully. White House National Security spokesman John Kirby said there were no reported sightings in any restricted airspace. He said the US Coast Guard has not uncovered any foreign involvement from coastal vessels.
“We have no evidence at this time that the reported drone sightings pose a national security or a public safety threat, or have a foreign nexus,” Kirby said, echoing statements from the Pentagon and New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy.
Pentagon spokeswoman Sabrina Singh has said they are not US military drones.