FBI deploy new tech to try to figure out drones

FBI and Homeland Security authorities are now using infrared cameras to try to figure out what’s going on with the drones spotted flying over New Jersey and other parts of the Atlantic seaboard, according to a report Monday.

The cameras and other drone detection technology are intended to try to figure out whether the drones pose any harm, said ABC News.

But authorities still believe most of what people are seeing are regular manned aircraft being mistaken for drones, the network reported.

Those explanations have not sat well with state residents nor their elected leaders, who said it was dismissive given what residents are seeing.

Rep. Chris Smith, a Republican who went drone-spotting last week, said it was odd for the feds to rule out the drones being a threat — yet not be able to say what exactly they are.

“Why can’t we bad at least one drone and get to the bottom of this?” the congressman said at a news conference Saturday.

Drone reports have raged for roughly a month, with federal officials belatedly commenting last week.

A senior FBI official early last week called the drones “concerning.”

Two days later, though, the FBI and Homeland Security said they had ruled out nefarious motives or foreign governments as the source of the drones. And a White House spokesman said most of the sightings were airplanes anyway.

Sen. Andy Kim, New Jersey Democrat, was initially resistant to that notion. He’d gone out drone-spotting and had a flight-tracking app to be able to rule out airplane traffic. He said he saw drones doing things that airplanes couldn’t have replicated.

“We clearly saw several that would move horizontally and then immediately switch back in the opposite direction in maneuvers that [a] plane can’t do,” he said on social media.

But by Saturday, he’d changed his mind.

“After more analysis and help from civilian pilots/experts and flight data, I’ve concluded the possible drone sightings pointed out to me were almost certainly planes,” he said.