New Jersey Drone Flights Authorized by FAA

03 February 2025

It appears that, after all of the agita and speculation over New Jersey's mystery drones, the story has become something like a Shakespeare comedy—specifically, "Much Ado About Nothing."

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt revealed last week that the surge of drones hovering after New Jersey late last year were authorized by the FAA as research flights, or simply flown by hobbyists for recreation. They were not UFOs, or posed a threat to national security.

"This was not the enemy," stated Leavitt during a formal press briefing.

Interestingly, the New Jersey drones represent one of the few instances where the Trump and Biden White Houses were in agreement. On December 16, 2024, former White House spokesperson for President Biden John Kirby stated, "We assess that the sightings to date include a combination of lawful commercial drones, hobbyist drones and law enforcement drones, as well as manned fixed-wing aircraft, helicopters and even stars that were mistakenly reported as drones. We have not identified anything anomalous or any national security or public safety risk over civilian airspace."