https://www.nytimes.com/2024/12/16/us/politics/drone-sightings-explanations.html
"Officials from the F.B.I., Defense Department and Department of Homeland Security said they were taking the sightings, and the concerns they have stirred, seriously, deploying advanced radar systems to hunt for foreign reconnaissance drones and scouring records for secret U.S. government programs.
But of the more than 5,000 tips they had received about drone sightings in recent weeks, only 100 required further examination, John Kirby, the National Security Council spokesman, said on Monday.
Most were fixed-wing, piloted aircraft that were taking off or landing at major airports, officials said. Others were smaller planes, and some were hobbyist drones."
Things are blown out of proportion by social media posts.
"As experts and officials tried to calm concerns, President-elect Donald J. Trump continued to stir people up. Speaking at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida, Mr. Trump said on Monday that he was canceling a trip to his property in Bedminster, N.J., because drones had been spotted there.
“The government knows what is happening,” he said.
Mr. Trump asserted, without evidence, that the military knew where the drones “took off from.” As president-elect, Mr. Trump receives intelligence briefings, but he did not say whether he had received one about the incidents.
In a social media post on Friday,
Mr. Trump suggested that the drones should be shot down,
an appeal he has made in the past. Experts and government officials say shooting into the air is a bad idea, potentially endangering the public, especially in densely populated parts of the East Coast.
“If people willy-nilly take these things down, it could cause more harm than good,” said James McDanolds, a drone expert who teaches at the Sonoran Desert Institute."