Gov. Kathy Hochul urged the federal government to step in amid ongoing drone sightings after she said an Orange County, N.Y., airport was forced to shut down its runways because of the mysterious aircraft.
Hochul said runways at the Stewart International Airport in New Windsor were shut down for roughly an hour Friday night because of drone activity in the airspace.
“This has gone too far,” the governor said in a statement.
The airport, located roughly 60 miles north of New York City in the Hudson Valley, hosts both commercial and military flights. The Stewart Air National Guard Base, which houses an Air Mobility Command unit of the New York Air National Guard, is located roughly 4 miles east of the main airport.
However, the Federal Aviation Administration, for its part, said that air traffic was merely “slowed,” not completely halted, at the upstate airport last night — and that there had been zero danger 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 said.
Hochul said she directed the New York State Intelligence Center to look into the drone sightings in coordination with the feds back in mid-November.
On Saturday, Hochul called for Congress to pass the Counter-UAS Authority Security, Safety, and Reauthorization Act — a bill that would bolster the Federal Aviation Administration’s oversight of drones, and also give state and local law enforcement agencies more authority to investigate.
“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 Department of Homeland Security and FBI said Thursday they have no evidence that the reported drone sightings in New Jersey pose a national security or a public safety threat, the Virginian-Pilot reported.
Hochul’s call for federal assistance came as numerous unconfirmed reports of drones seen flying at different locations across the five boroughs surfaced on Thursday, including at LaGuardia Airport.
Police radio chatter also indicated reports of numerous other drone sightings at locations in Far Rockaway, the Bronx and Staten Island Thursday night.
Meanwhile, Mayor Adams said in a series of posts Friday on X that the drones are being investigated at the federal, state and local levels but that law enforcement doesn’t see any public safety concerns.
“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 nearly a month, and have been reported in other states, including Virginia and Pennsylvania, according to the Virginian-Pilot.
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