Reading the headline, were you surprised to see me writing for The NOTL Local about something besides the environment?
Worry not. I am not about to start writing about alien conspiracy theories. Besides my professional and personal interest in the natural world and our relationship with it, I have become increasingly interested in our relationship with the world in general.
Today, I bring you the conversation of the mysterious and unnerving drones that have been hovering over New Jersey and New York during the past month or so. Yet, from my online observations, mainstream media was nearly three weeks late to the party in the sky.
Shortly after the U.S. election in early November, residents and officials in New Jersey recorded and reported dozens of incidents involving powered aerial entities equipped with lights over residential, military and political properties around the state. Are the election and this situation related? I won't speculate, but we do have a lot to ponder here.
For weeks, American news outlets and local branches of Fox News reported and recorded with endless material about these sightings. Obtaining footage and stories was made easy, as these objects, deemed broadly as drones, hovered and bolted across the night sky. Sometimes they moved in formation, and almost exclusively at night with lights on, as if they were comfortable with being seen. It was and continues to be, at this time, a guaranteed light show every night once the sun sets.
As of mid-December, the White House, the FBI, the Department of Homeland Security, Department of Defence, and major news outlet around the world have picked up on this story. The Pentagon deputy press secretary, Sabrina Singh, said, “at this time, we have no evidence that these activities are coming from a foreign entity or the work of an adversary.” Meanwhile, the FBI has said it admits that they don't know who is operating the flying objects, yet also insists that the US government is not behind them.
To add further conflation, a White House security communications advisor, John Kirby, has said multiple times that there is “no threat to public safety,” but will still will not answer what the objects are doing or who runs them. Further to Kirby's statement, he curiously mentioned how “we've done the detection, then the analysis. We've corroborated the sightings... and in every case that we examined to date, we have seen nothing, nothing that indicates a public safety risk.”
Again, this raises a lot of questions and eyebrows alike.
The residents of New Jersey, New York, and several other eastern seaboard states seem appreciably frustrated with the lack of answers and actions. In my opinion, the people deserve answers. For a moment, I'd like you to imagine where you currently live. How would you feel if a drone of any size hovered with lights over your neighbourhood every night for week after week?
Niagara-on-the-Lake is no stranger to drones, given its longstanding tourist destination title. Historic buildings, big water and wedding destination spots all provide drone opportunities. To learn more about this and tie it in with what's happening in the U.S., I spoke to my closest friend and professional drone operator, Dave Tebbutt.
Tebbutt says that he is totally okay with current drone laws in place in NOTL and in general. “The technology in them now — the range, the battery life and the camera quality, everything, is pretty remarkable, and (can be) a total invasion of privacy,” he said.
Tebbutt explained that the government has created “geozones,” or no-fly zones in certain areas where it makes the most sense, such as near airports, including the Niagara District Airport. He recalled he once had a client request a drone shot for their wedding a winery close to our airport, yet the drone was not permitted to fly and was actually physically stopped from taking these shots. Tebbutt says he totally supports these laws out of caution for plane and human safety.
He also told me a story we laughed about. Years ago, He was flying a drone over international water on the Niagara River while on a Sea-Doo, with his drone on “follow me” mode, with the drone programmed to follow the operator while in action. It didn't take long for border officials to identify the drone and find Tebbutt on the water. “They knew it was me,” he said. The border patrol quickly brought a boat right up to his Sea-Doo. He was told not to do it again and let off with a warning.
This makes one think if it was that simple to identify and track a drone and its operator a few years ago, how can drones run amok over sensitive sites and residential neighbourhoods for months straight in New Jersey and other states?
Tebbutt says that he appreciates that “the government identifies where a drone can and can not fly,” continuing to point out that “I have no issue with government control over drones. They still let us fly them in a lot of places.”
Given this local context, it raises questions about what's happening in the US.
Why did it take so long for the political bigwigs and powerful institutions in the US to go public about this? Was the credibility of hundreds of people, tapes and local news reports not sufficient to pique national security or airspace interest? I understand there are other colossal moving parts in the world's news cycle right now, but it's not like it took a few days of these events to grab attention. It took weeks.
My next thought as a legal drone owner is the lack of inaction about this. If I flew my drone over residential neighbourhoods, touristy Niagara Falls or government properties for weeks straight, let alone for one day, I can guarantee my drone would be incapacitated, or I'd be getting a knock on my door from people in suits. Why are these allegedly massive drones free of this treatment for weeks straight?
Also, let's consider the nature of American culture and their associated military. There are a lot of legal gun-owning citizens in the United States. After weeks without answers, what is stopping a legal gun owner from shooting one down, setting up a camera, and watching to see who comes to pick it up? The issue with this, according to Kirby, the Pentagon’s spokesperson, is that it could lead to debris falling from the sky on residential areas. I'm baffled that this thought is a bigger concern than simply answering what these things are.
Regarding U.S. technological capabilities to solve this issue, don’t tell me a nation that can read your licence plate from space and track down fugitives with online digging and thermal vision can't tell the public what these drone-like objects are.
My final thought on this is the danger of creating a misinformation vacuum. Again, this is the US government’s fault; the longer it waits to deliver a concrete answer to this uncanny situation, the larger the empty void of “what if” begins to brew. Congratulations, US government — you now have people believing an insane array of possibilities, creating the very misinformation that you love to crack down on. I've read and heard everything from people being sprayed with the next disease outbreak, to a pundit on Fox news saying it's an Iranian mothership parked off the coast sending drones into the US. Aliens are also a thought that's thrown around.
Others have said it's simply a side distraction while major or dangerous legislation gets quietly rammed through the government without a fuss. Where have I seen that playbook before?
Just like the people of New Jersey and beyond, I obviously don't have the answer. However, I do like having the discussion, and I'd love to hear more from anyone who wants to continue this important dialogue.
