American authorities announced Thursday restrictions on drone flights over sensitive infrastructure in the state of New Jersey, where the sighting of unidentified drones has hit the headlines and caused concern since the end of November.
“At the request of federal security partners, the FAA (the US aviation regulator) has issued 22 temporary flight restrictions prohibiting drone flights over sensitive infrastructure in New Jersey,” he said. she declared in a press release.
The restrictions are in effect until Jan. 17, according to the FAA website, which did not provide an explanation of the timeline.
“There is no threat to public safety from reported drone sightings,” the Department of Homeland Security reiterated Thursday.
This decision by the FAA stems from a “concern for prudence” after “critical infrastructure partners (…) requested temporary flight restrictions over their installations,” the ministry said in a press release. , without identifying the installations in question.
These drones, seen for several weeks in the northeast of the country, have sparked concern among residents about possible foreign involvement and given rise to accusations of supposed cover-up by the American government.
The authorities – including the Pentagon and the American federal police, the FBI – have multiplied press releases and interventions aimed at allaying fears.
“We have not identified anything abnormal and do not believe the activity to date presents a risk to national or public safety over the civil airspace of New Jersey or other northern states -est,” the FAA, the Department of Homeland Security, the FBI and the Pentagon declared in a joint statement this week.
“After carefully reviewing the technical data and information provided by concerned citizens, we believe that the sightings made to date include a combination of legal commercial drones, hobbyist drones, and law enforcement drones, as well as as piloted fixed-wing aircraft, helicopters and stars erroneously reported as drones,” the text underlines.
Seized by local elected officials, but also the four senators from New Jersey and New York, senior American officials rejected any foreign involvement, and in particular assertions according to which the drones came from an Iranian or Chinese “mother ship”. at sea.
Videos of recent mysterious aerial phenomena continue to circulate with sightings reported in New York, New Jersey, Maryland and Virginia.
President-elect Donald Trump said the US government “knows what’s going on”, suggesting there may be some sort of cover-up from authorities.
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