DawgTalkers.net Forums DawgTalk Everything Else... Drones over the East coast

I’m mostly posting this to see how much this story does or doesn’t have traction in the rest of the country. I live in New Jersey just outside of New York City and this is pretty much all anyone can talk about at the moment, in no small part because these things are literally over our homes. In fact, we had one parked over a street next to ours for several hours two nights ago.

These drones are NOT small. This thing looked to be about 8 feet square and just sat there for hours. At some point after I went inside, my neighbor (who’s losing his ever loving mind over all this) said it suddenly moved very rapidly to the north of us. Some of them look like windowless helicopters, literally like 15-18 feet long. And noisy.

There’s tons of conspiracy theories getting thrown around. Today’s conspiracy du jour is they’re monitoring radiation and it’s possible a dirty bomb was located or they’re looking for it. Yesterday it was about the plasma energy lab in Princeton losing some floating plasma balls that can’t be seen during the day. There’s lots of people giving lots of opinions, some of them from seemingly knowledgeable people, but no one seems to have any concrete answers a there’s tons of silliness as well. It seems at this point there’s way more noise than signal, but I am curious how much this story has captured the minds and imaginations of people outside the East Coast because, truth be told this is banana here.

On any given night there are literally dozens of these massive drones floating over north New Jersey, some of NY and Connecticut. My town and the 3 or 4 suburbs right around us have between one to three of these things parked above us every night. There’s video of them hovering in bunches over the ocean and nobody seems to have any real clear idea of what actually is going on. Clearly, the US government knows what’s going on seeing as they’re not scrambling jets and choppers or taking any sort of defensive posture, but they’re being very cagey about dispensing any information. It’s just weird.

Like I said, I’m not really posting this for anyone else’s opinion about what’s going on but just getting a sense of how it’s playing outside the area. Is it just another little blurb on the news feed?

It's bonkers. Wright-Patterson Air Force Base closed it's airspace over the weekend in Ohio.

Feds say "nothing to see here"

Mayorkas today says "we're on it" and "federal officials are not aware of direct national security concerns"... after these things have been buzzing around for over a month.

We all know the simple solution -- shoot one down and we'll know what the hell is going on. So we know that will happen right around never.

In fact, that makes so much sense that the fact that we're not should tell you that the government knows exactly what's going on but doesn't care to share that with the American people.

Well it’s pretty clear to me they’re not concerned because it’s them. I think they’re practicing defense maneuvers and systems or they are indeed scanning for something in particular but this is 💯% NOT a foreign actor. As one of the random talking heads from the airforce said today, absolutely nothing happens in US airspace anywhere near this level that the government doesn’t know exactly what it is. If they didn’t know what it was, we would definitely know that. Their reaction would be very very different.

It’s just odd to me that they’re so cagey with the info. I mean, come up with a good cover story at least. I know we can’t know everything, the public has to kept in the dark about a lot of things, but they have to manage this better. Give us the ol’ wink and nod and “don’t worry ur pretty little self about it” and tell us it’s a distributed weather tracker or something.

It almost makes me think they’re watching people watch the drones. Like, they’re actually studying how people react. I doubt that but… maybe it’s part of it? It’s my guess that it’ll all just disappear one day and we’ll all just stop talking about it and no one will be the wiser. Or they put out a 1/2 believable cover story.

I think you hit the nail on the head. It's our own government. It makes too much sense for it to be a secret weapons program that's classified so they can't explain it for people to think of that as the most logical answer. The areas they have been seen in are highly populated so shooting one down could be catastrophic. You can't just "shoot one down" over a densely populated location.

I know we're living in a time where government secrets or secret weapons programs don't mean much to people. Somehow they think they have the right to know everything. If we all know so will our enemies. Some things need to be kept under wraps. Knowing they exist is one thing. Knowing the details could very well be telling our enemies too much.

I'm shocked that some gun totin' citizen hasn't shot one down yet.

I am too. It will happen soon.

I wonder if he'll be charged for the murders it may cause for people on the ground when the drone crashes? Hopefully.

Charged for the murders it may cause? I would suspect so...

If the drone crashes and "murders" people.

I know you like to run with narratives, but you do realize there have been more than a few spotted in rural and semi-rural areas, right?

Key phrase being "more than a few". The vast majority of the sightings have been over heavily populated areas. I'm not following any narrative. I believe anyone so unhinged they feel some need to shoot down one of these drones won't be using a lot of rational thought as to the location. I'm looking at the odds of where one of these might be shot down which is the exact opposite of a narrative. Someone following a narrative would be pointing out unlikely odds as a more likely scenario.

Got it.

So anyone considering shooting one down wouldn't even consider if it would damage other humans when it hit the ground... because they would be devoid of rational thought by definition.

Hopefully no one shoots one down and murders people.

Pretty much. How rational would that decision be if one thinks about it for a minute?

Does everyone who flies drones owe you an explanation? Do those who flies drones have to notify people who they are and why they are flying them? Isn't shooting down a drone damaging someone elses property? Wouldn't that in and of itself be a crime? I'm pretty sure nobody can make the decision to damage the property of others because they want an explanation without avoiding criminal prosecution.

No matter how you slice it shooting one of these drones down would be a criminal act. Depending on the value of that drone it may very well be a felony.

If after considering those things one deems the decision to shoot one of these down as "rational thought" I'm quite sure we have a different definition as to what that means.

And yes, if someone shoots a drone down and their actions cause someone else to be killed, that's a crime too.

It seems you've skipped the most common reason someone would shoot one down so that you can stay on the fringe of all the talking points.

I don't think, expect, or condone madman-vigilantes to be out in the streets just shooting down drones. I don't *condone* anyone doing it. I just know humans and the way they act, especially if they feel their privacy is being invaded. I would expect that the first one to fall will be because it's flying over someone's personal property and the owner doesn't like it. I also wonder if the owner of the drone would then disclose themselves as a "victim" of the shooting to law enforcement.


Can I Fly Drone Over Private Property"

Flying a Drone Over Private Property: The legality of flying a drone over private property is a complex issue, with varying regulations across different states and jurisdictions.

Federal Law: According to federal law, it is legal to fly a drone over private property, as the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) oversees airspace regulations for drones.

State Laws: However, many states have their own laws and regulations regarding drone use over private property. Some states, such as California, Florida, and Texas, have specific laws that prohibit drone use to invade privacy or capture images of private property without consent.

Property Owner Rights: Property owners have the right to enjoy their property without annoyance or interference, and flying a drone over their property without permission could be considered a trespass or nuisance.

Drone Operator Responsibilities: Drone operators have a responsibility to respect the privacy and property rights of others, and to follow all applicable laws and regulations when flying their drone.

Best Practices: To avoid any potential issues, it’s best for drone operators to obtain permission from property owners before flying over their property, and to follow all applicable laws and regulations.

*Results from google AI

Typically the FAA has used the standard of usable airspace when it comes to private property. This means you own the airspace you can realistically use over your property and anything above that becomes a public airspace, subject to FAA regulation.

Downing a drone is downing an aircraft, and is investigated as such. This will get the eye on the FBI on you, along with the FAA. I'd advise anyone to not do it, not pointed at you specifically

I think you would have to look up what flying one over your private property or home actually means. I haven't see anywhere that any of these drones are hovering close to the ground over someone's home.

They all seem to be at an altitude that would exclude any definition of invasion of your privacy unless that's simply something one imagines or think they are doing. I'm sure states have exceptions to hovering a drone over your pool while you're having a pool party or at an altitude one could reasonably conclude they may be targeting you personally in a surveillance effort. At what altitude do you think that no longer applies? Surely you're not suggesting that at 200 feet in altitude one could legally shoot own a drone because they "feel" it's invading their privacy do you?

And no, I never indicated that you condoned such actions. The discussion was about whether doing so would be considered "rational thought".

Much like yourself I know humans and the way they act. Often times, as it would be if they shot down one of these drowns, irrationally is the answer.

Idk what all the hullabaloo is over, but something is UP.

Drones are up. And shortly we’ll find out it was commercial testing of some kind. That’s unless some chucklehead shoots one down. Then the conspiacy theories will win.

I doubt they are even drones. People see what they want to see.

They’re drones. They sit in one spot, sometimes for hours. Most of the time they’re moving slowly. They’re probably way too high for an average shot to bring down (like 800-1500ft) and they’re big, somewhere between an oven and a subcompact car.

I do think people mistake some planes for drones but there’s plenty of footage of actual drones.

I can also tell you that in my area of NJ, you squeeze off a few shots and swat will be on your street in probably 15mins, lol. This is not an area with gun shots ringing in the air. Average home is over a million, houses over 3-5MM are everywhere up in here. They scare easy even if half of them have their own guns stashed. Some more rural area you could get away with it but not around me. North East New Jersey is basically one giant dense expensive suburb. And not many have long distance high powered hunting rifles. You’re not going to have a lot of luck shooting a big honking drone 1500ft in the air with 9mm.

Last thing… I bet we never find out. Or when we do it’ll be a little blurb cover story and everyone will have moved on. It’s already kinda dying down. What I found the oddest was just that there’s been NO official explanation. Everyone above local police is basically mum. The news said homeland security, fbi & cia have been having meetings but there’s no statement and very little alarm from them. Throw us a bone. Make something up and put it on letterhead. But seeing as they haven’t yet, I don’t think they will. And since they won’t, imaginations have filled the void with tons of silliness. I’m sure you’ve heard about the “Orbs”. Even CBS did a long spot on the orbs. Who the hell knows.

I'm honestly wondering what difference putting out an official statement would make even if the statement were true. You would just have the same people wondering what's going on now claiming it was a lie, creating conspiracies and saying the explanation is just a government cover up. That's the world we live in now.

Orwellian.
I bet it’s law enforcement playing/testing new toys.

There's more than 1 way to knock a drone out of the air. I'm kinda surprised we haven't heard anything about someone sending up their own drone for a recon or kamikaze run.

Youtube has many videos of 2nd amendment types shooting drones down over their property. I have no idea how high they are flying, you maay be right, but it’s not like those people don’t exist.


I wouldn’t be surprised to find out it’s some kind of tech being developed for law enforcement or intelligence ops. They would keep that tightly under wraps. With all the possible applications it could also be none of the above. Just a group of 600 pound bed-ridden peeping toms… but the obvious answer is most likely correct, it’s developmental tech from some corp.


EDIT: Maybe the Soprano Family is going high tech… /purple

A couple guys were arrested a few weeks ago for (I think) exactly this. They were flying a non commercial grade drone very high trying to “get a closer look” and supposedly entered FAA controlled airspace, near an airport or something.

Maybe it's our Browns spying on other teams so they can gameplan for them. Oh, wait it can't be because if it was the Browns the drone would malfunction and crash into someone or something creating a very serious legal issue not to mention an embarrassing situation for the team!!

....or more likely it's Belichick getting the skinny on his ACC opponents.

HMMM.... Good point. Seems to me he was very involved in something like that before!!!!

Or he is scouting his new girlfriend. Just putting that out there.

A month in and still no official explanation. It’s definitely corporate or government sponsored, or it would have been stopped by now. Chinese balloons proved that much.

I just hope it’s not a jihadists terrorist cell flying military surplus switchblade drones over NJ… you never know. <twilight zone theme song/>