Drone Sightings in New Jersey: What’s Really Happening?
People in New Jersey are worried about strange drones flying at night, and these concerns were discussed in a big meeting called “Safeguarding the Homeland from Unmanned Aerial Systems.” Dr. Will Austin, who knows a lot about drones and is the President of Warren County Community College, thinks that many of these sightings might not be drones at all.
Dr. Austin looked at lots of videos from people who thought they saw big drones. “After analyzing numerous videos shared by concerned citizens, I’m inclined to believe that many of the reported ‘large drones’ were actually manned aircraft mistakenly identified as drones,” he said. He also mentioned that some of the things people see could be lights on cell towers or small drones like DJI Mavics that are being flown legally.
What People Get Wrong About Drones
Many people think they see drones in the sky, but Dr. Austin says they’re often just seeing lights, like from airplanes near airports. “Northern NJ has numerous airports, some of the largest in the nation, and many misidentifications appear to me to be airplanes at night on approach to land,” he explained.
Some news stories say these mystery drones might be spying on military places, but Austin says drones aren’t usually good at seeing things clearly at night because their sensors have trouble with the dark. He also pointed out that not many drones can fly very far without losing signal, so some people are wrong about how far drones can travel. This confusion can be due to something called the parallax effect, where things look like they’re floating.
We think it’s important for everyone to understand what drones can and can’t do.
How Media and Public Opinion Play a Role
Austin thinks that the media is making people more scared by reporting so much about drones. He mentioned studies that show how people can be influenced by what they hear a lot. “In simpler terms, people preferred to believe the lie over believing they could ever be fooled or mistaken,” he said. Because of this, some drone fans are flying around trying to find these mysterious drones, making more people report sightings.
He saw many people flying their drones around his area just to look for these so-called mystery drones.
The Importance of Education and Regulation
Dr. Austin believes that instead of just worrying, people should learn more about drones. He thinks the U.S. should invest in the drone industry to keep up with other countries. “We need to have true hearings on drones and how we are falling behind our adversaries so we can pump a lot of development dollars into the drone economy,” he stated.
Education is a big part of this, and that’s why Warren County Community College has a special program called WarrenUAS. It helps students learn about using drones in jobs like farming, police work, and protecting the environment. They have over 100 students and use equipment worth more than $5 million.
“This is precisely why we began the program, now almost a decade ago. We saw the vast potential for drones, if professionalized, with properly trained professionals keeping safety at the forefront,” Austin said. He thinks teaching people about drones will help reduce the bad press they sometimes get.
Austin worries that too many rules could hurt the drone industry. “My greatest fear right now is that in an effort to make sure these drones are not secretly malicious machines from an adversary, we stifle our already struggling drone industry,” he warned.
