Some experts say there are cases in which individuals believe they are seeing drones flying in the sky, but they may be something else.
“Historically, we’ve experienced many cases of mistaken identity where reported drones are, in fact, manned aircraft or facilities,” a Department of Homeland Security official said on a Dec. 14 White House press call discussing the government’s response to ongoing drone sightings.
In November, “multiple suspicious activity reports” were submitted in New Jersey “regarding unidentified and unknown subjects operating multiple unmanned aircraft, otherwise known as UAS,” the official said.
“Our military knows where they took off from. If it’s a garage, they can go right into that garage. They know where it came from and where it went and for some reason they don’t want to comment,” President-elect Donald Trump said at a Dec. 16 news conference streamed by ABC News. “Something strange is going on, for some reason they don’t want to tell the people, and they should.”
Drone sightings have also been reported in New York, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, Virginia, California and Ohio, according to CNN.
On Dec. 13, New York’s Stewart International Airport temporarily closed its runways due to drone activity, according to the news outlet. Airspace over Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio was also restricted on Dec. 15 for several hours because of drones, WHIO reported.
“It is not illegal to fly drones in U.S. airspace,” a Federal Aviation Administration official said on the White House press call. “Generally speaking, it is legal to fly a drone in most locations, both during the day and at night, as long as you remain below 400 feet and you keep those drones in sight at all times, avoiding other aircraft and not causing hazard to any people or property, and avoiding restricted airspace.”
Still, the reports of drone activity have been heightened after they have been spotted over “residential neighborhoods, restricted sites and critical infrastructure,” according to CNN.
There are ways to identify and distinguish whether or not what you are seeing in the sky is a drone.
How to identify a drone
The lighting on a drone can be a dead giveaway, experts say.
“A series of probably like four lights, they are going to be red, they’re going to be green. If it’s a nighttime flight, they’re going to have auto collision lights that are blinking,” Ashlee Cooper, drone pro for the state of Delaware’s FAA Safety Team and the CEO of Droneversity, told WTXF.
There are other signs to look for as well, according to NJ.com.
Objects in the air may be larger than they appear. In some cases, an object in the air may appear smaller than it is. This may cause confusion when noticing an airplane flying.
Watch how the aircraft moves. Multi-rotor drones have propellers that allow them to maneuver more aggressively and make “tight controlled turns.” Planes do not have the same ability to hover, move from side to side, or takeoff and land vertically. “Planes have a non-zero turning radius,” Pramod Abichandani, an associate professor at the New Jersey Institute of Technology, said. “If its nose is pointing in a certain direction, that is generally the direction it will move in.”
Drones also make a distinct sound, according to pilotinstitute.com
Many consumer-grade drones are quadcopters, according to the website. These type of drones have a distinct buzzing sound. They can be very loud and heard from 100 to 200 feet away.
There are also websites such as FlightAware and Flightradar24.com that track airplanes and their routes, helping distinguish if what you are seeing flying above is an airplane.
“I am actually hoping that this will be an opportunity to spark the conversation for individuals to get used to some larger sized drones. Drones that are delivering goods, delivering first aid, delivering organs and response. This is something that is happening in states and municipalities as we speak. It’s not science fiction,” Cooper told WXTF.
© 2024 the Merced Sun-Star (Merced, Calif.). Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
