The Federal Aviation Administration has issued a short lived ban on drones for greater than two dozen areas throughout New York Metropolis, Lengthy Island and Westchester County as officers examine the hundreds of not too long ago reported drone sightings within the area.
The restrictions, issued on Friday by the FAA for “special security reasons,” are set to remain in impact till Jan. 19.
Impacted places embrace areas in all 5 boroughs, Suffolk and Nassau counties on Lengthy Island, and Yonkers and New Citadel in Westchester County.
Underneath the restrictions, unmanned plane techniques (UAS) aren’t permitted to function in these areas, except operators are granted specific authorities authorization. The restrictions cowl “some of New York’s critical infrastructure sites,” Gov. Kathy Hochul stated in an announcement, including the motion is “purely precautionary.”
Whereas there aren’t any identified threats to public security, Hochul vowed to “continue aggressively monitoring the situation” whereas calling on Congress to go laws giving native officers the assets and authority to raised reply to studies of drone exercise.
The restrictions got here because of a number of conversations Hochul had with Division of Homeland Safety Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas. She stated they are going to work a “state-of-the-art drone detection system” the state obtained from the Biden administration earlier this week.
The newest ban was introduced a day after the FAA issued related restrictions on greater than 20 cities and cities in New Jersey — the primary sweeping ban since residents started reporting mysterious drones over components of the Backyard State within the days main as much as Thanksgiving.
Within the weeks since, the sightings have unfold to a number of states alongside the East Coast. On Tuesday, the FBI confirmed it had obtained greater than 5,000 recommendations on drone sightings within the tristate space.
An investigation by “trained visual observers” decided the sightings have included a mix of lawful industrial drones, hobbyist and regulation enforcement drones, manned fixed-wing plane, helicopters, and stars mistakenly reported as drones.
The FBI stated the exercise had thus far not introduced a nationwide safety or public security threat.
