"Shoot them down!!!" How Trump interprets the mass drone sightings
The drone sightings in the USA continue unabated, but only flights over military installations are problematic. Even if aircraft are usually behind them, Donald Trump is putting forward his own theory.
No time? blue News summarizes for you
- Drone sightings in the USA continue and are now affecting various other states in addition to New Jersey.
- Sightings over military bases are problematic: drones have briefly blocked a US Air Force base and have also been seen over Ramstein in Germany.
- Alejandro Mayorkas of the Department of Homeland Security denies that foreign forces are at work.
- Donald Trump writes that the government should know, calls for the drones to be shot down and disparages a party colleague.
- The FBI received 5,000 tips, but only 100 were useful.
- The majority of the sightings apparently concerned aircraft.
The satirical "New Jersey Guide to Aircraft Identification" gets to the heart of the matter. Whether Boeing 747, Concorde, F-35 or propeller Cessna: every silhouette is simply labeled "drone". Only one aircraft is listed as the "Iranian mother ship".
The whole thing is of course due to the excitement in the USA: Drone sightings are no longer limited to New Jersey. Similar reports are also coming in from New York, Connecticut, Maryland, Massachusetts, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Virginia.
While many sightings are probably the result of highly sensitized observers, others have concrete consequences - such as the Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio having to close its airspace and temporarily suspend operations because of the drones.
"I can confirm that there were sightings of aircraft over Wright-Patterson between Friday evening and Saturday morning," spokesman Bob Purtiman told the specialist publication "The War Zone". The drones "varied in size and configuration", said Purtiman: "Our units are working with local authorities to ensure the safety of personnel, facilities and equipment."
Trump: government needs to know
On the one hand, American drone fever is showing symptoms of hysteria; on the other, military facilities are affected. And not just in the USA: drones have also been reported over the US base in Ramstein, Germany, at Rheinmetall and BASF, writes Der Spiegel. The US military is therefore consulting with the authorities.
So are foreign powers behind this? No. At least the Department of Homeland Security knows of "no foreign involvement", assured Alejandro Mayorkas, head of the department, yesterday (Sunday). And: "I want to assure the American public that we are on it."
Mayorkas is calling for more leeway when shooting down drones away from military installations. Incidentally, the incoming president is tooting the same horn on Truth Social: "Shoot them down!!!" Incidentally, Donald Trump insinuates that the incumbent government has a finger in the pie: Without their knowledge, something like this couldn't happen.
Out of 5000 FBI tips, only 100 were useful
This is obviously not the only theory the Republican has. However, the 78-year-old will not really believe that his party colleague Chris Christie is behind it. The two have a deep-rooted enmity: at campaign events, Trump has always said that he will no longer call Christie "a fat pig".
The FBI has now received around 5,000 tips from the public. What is telling, however, is that only around 100 of these have so far turned out to be useful tips that the authorities are following up. Instead, the Financial Times quotes an FBI agent as saying: "The majority of reported sightings match the approach pattern of very busy airports."
In fact, the majority of sightings can apparently be explained simply. They are either airplanes - or ships waiting to enter port on the coast off New York and being sold by passengers - knowingly or not - as some sort of unidentified flying object. See above tweet.
"It's literally all airplanes!"
"In every video I've seen - and I've spent the last few days watching every single one of these videos -" former U.S. Rep. Adam Kinzinger also says on CNN, "every video I've seen on Twitter or on the Internet, it's just airplanes. It's literally all airplanes!"
The above-mentioned Chris Christie is from New Jersey. The Republican also believes that the sightings are certainly unusual. But official communication also fosters mistrust: "If you don't fill the vacuum, all the conspiracy theories get stuffed in there. Then you get a deputy like Jeff van Drew saying there's an Iranian mother ship off the coast."
Trump's future security advisor has also commented on the matter. "We need to know who's behind this," Mike Waltz tells CBS News. "But now it seems to me like the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Defense are pointing fingers at each other."