Gov. Kathy Hochul urged the federal authorities to step in amid ongoing drone sightings after an Orange County, N.Y., airport was pressured to close down its runways due to the mysterious plane.
Hochul stated runways on the Stewart Worldwide Airport in New Windsor have been shut down for roughly an hour Friday night time due to drone exercise within the airspace.
“This has gone too far,” the governor stated in a press release.
The airport, positioned roughly 60 miles north of New York Metropolis within the Hudson Valley, hosts each business and army flights. The Stewart Air Nationwide Guard Base, which homes an Air Mobility Command unit of the New York Air Nationwide Guard is positioned roughly 4 miles east of the primary airport.
On this picture taken from video offered by MartyA45_, a number of drones look like flying over Randolph, N.J., on Dec. 4, 2024. (MartyA45_ /TMX by way of AP, File)
Hochul stated she directed the New York State Intelligence Heart to look into the drone sightings in coordination with the feds again in mid-November.
On Saturday, Hochul known as for Congress to cross the Counter-UAS Authority Safety, Security, and Reauthorization Act— a invoice that will bolster the Federal Aviation Administration’s oversight of drones, and in addition give state and native regulation enforcement companies extra authority to analyze.
“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 Division of Homeland Safety and FBI stated Thursday they haven’t any proof that the reported drone sightings in New Jersey pose a nationwide safety or a public security menace, the Virginian-Pilot reported.
Hochul’s name for federal help got here as quite a few unconfirmed experiences of drones seen flying at totally different areas throughout the 5 boroughs surfaced on Thursday, together with at LaGuardia Airport.
Police radio chatter additionally indicated experiences of quite a few different drone sightings at areas in Far Rockaway, the Bronx and Staten Island Thursday night time.
The unexplained sightings have been widespread in New Jersey for practically a month, and have been reported in different states together with Virginia and Pennsylvania, in keeping with the Virginian-Pilot.
