Gov. Kathy Hochul urged the federal authorities to step in amid ongoing drone sightings after she mentioned an Orange County, N.Y., airport was compelled to close down its runways due to the mysterious plane.
Hochul mentioned runways on the Stewart Worldwide Airport in New Windsor have been shut down for roughly an hour Friday night time due to drone exercise within the airspace.
“This has gone too far,” the governor mentioned in a press release.
The airport, situated roughly 60 miles north of New York Metropolis within the Hudson Valley, hosts each industrial and navy flights. The Stewart Air Nationwide Guard Base, which homes an Air Mobility Command unit of the New York Air Nationwide Guard, is situated roughly 4 miles east of the principle airport.
Nevertheless, the Federal Aviation Administration, for its half, mentioned that air visitors was merely “slowed,” not fully halted, on the upstate airport final night time — and that there had been zero hazard posed.
“The FAA slowed traffic at New York Stewart International Airport on Friday, Dec. 13, due to multiple reported drone sightings near and over the airport. There were no safety impacts to aircraft. Operations resumed Friday night,” a FAA spokesman mentioned.
Hochul mentioned she directed the New York State Intelligence Middle to look into the drone sightings in coordination with the feds again in mid-November.
On Saturday, Hochul known as for Congress to go the Counter-UAS Authority Safety, Security, and Reauthorization Act — a invoice that might bolster the Federal Aviation Administration’s oversight of drones, and in addition give state and native regulation enforcement businesses extra authority to research.
“Extending these powers to New York State and our peers is essential,” she wrote. “Until those powers are granted to state and local officials, the Biden administration must step in by directing additional federal law enforcement to New York and the surrounding region to ensure the safety of our critical infrastructure and our people.”
The Division of Homeland Safety and FBI mentioned Thursday they don’t have any proof that the reported drone sightings in New Jersey pose a nationwide safety or a public security menace, the Virginian-Pilot reported.
Hochul’s name for federal help got here as quite a few unconfirmed reviews of drones seen flying at totally different places throughout the 5 boroughs surfaced on Thursday, together with at LaGuardia Airport.
Police radio chatter additionally indicated reviews of quite a few different drone sightings at places in Far Rockaway, the Bronx and Staten Island Thursday night time.
In the meantime, Mayor Adams mentioned in a collection of posts Friday on X that the drones are being investigated on the federal, state and native ranges however that regulation enforcement doesn’t see any public security issues.
“Law enforcement partners see no evidence to suggest a public safety threat, national security concern, or any foreign involvement associated with recent drone sightings in the five boroughs,” Adams posted. “The NYPD reports that, although they have received an increase in drone sightings over the past 48 hours, drone detections have actually remained steady over the past 30 days, suggesting that a significant portion of the reporting is attributed to manned aircraft or commercial hobby drones.”
The unexplained sightings have been widespread in New Jersey for almost a month, and have been reported in different states, together with Virginia and Pennsylvania, in response to the Virginian-Pilot.
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