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Here’s the truth behind 6 mystery drone videos

The most widely-viewed videos many claim show mysterious drones hovering over New Jersey and New York show clear signs of what they actually are, according to three drone and aeronautics experts who spoke to The Post.

The drones in New Jersey night skies were first flagged Nov. 13, hovering in airspace not far from the Picatinny Arsenal military facility in Wharton, NJ.

Since then reports of strange flashing orbs, statically hovering craft and silent low-flying crafts with distinctive lights have been spotted, some the size of mini-SUVs, and recorded on video by bystanders across the tri-state area.

Theories about the origins of the suspected drones include that they’ve been sent by foreign rivals including Iran or China.

New Jersey Senator Andy Kim headed out with police to investigate the widespread msytery sightings across New Jersey. He also shared videos of what he describes as multiple unidentified drones in his quest for answers. AndyKimNJ/X
Aviation ace Captain Ross ‘Rusty’ Aimer, who joined The Post’s panel to review and explain video of mysterious sightings across the tri-state area. Courtesy of Captain Ross “Rusty” Aimer

The activity prompted the FBI to open an investigation, but the agency warned earlier this week although they have received over 5,000 reports of drone sightings, less than 100 warranted further investigation.

The Post showed six of the most widely circulated drone videos to three experts, who explained how amidst the hysteria, the truth is usually a lot simpler than people want to think.

Those experts are: Captain Ross “Rusty” Aimer, a retired United Airlines pilot who is now CEO of Aero Consulting experts, Seth J. Frantzman, author of “Drone Wars: Pioneers, Killing Machines, Artificial Intelligence, and the Battle for the Future” and retired pilot, Captain Richard J. Levy who is now CEO of Aviation Expert Consulting.

Video 1: Mysterious floating orb

An ABC News 7 news crew captured video which appeared to show a mysterious floating orb – although experts say it may just be a trick of the light. ABC 7

View video here

“It’s hard to tell what this is because of the quality, it could be a planet or star or even an engine of an aircraft. As with many of the sightings, it’s difficult to tell because of the quality of the video,” said Frantzman.

Aimer added: “That is a bad focus to me of a lighted object. It looks like it could be a lighted drone but it looks like a picture that is way out of focus, a lighted subject.

“This one is very blurred. It could be distorted lights on a drone or a helicopter but the picture is not very good, so it’s impossible to say,” said Levy, who has 41 years of flying experience in the US.

Social media users have also pointed out this video, although filmed by a reputable news crew, is likely a trick of the light on a camera lens.

Video 2: Lights cruise over rooftop

In this video a pair of flashing lights — visible to the left of the peak of the house in the center of the picture — soar over a house in Neptune, N.J., then appear to slow to an almost complete stop. Guitarland/Reddit
A closer shot of the mysterious object, which shows off its lights, which are in line with those displayed by aircraft required by the FAA. Guitarland/Reddit

View video here

Frantzman said: “This appears to be a plane and it is has the types of lights one would expect on an aircraft. Even if it is a drone, it appears to be flying with lights which implies it is not trying to do anything nefarious.


Do you have footage of drones over the skies of New Jersey or New York? Send it to The Post at drones@nypost.com.


“If they were nefarious, like Chinese drones or Iranian drones coming to spy, you’d expect you wouldn’t see them conducting illegal surveillance,” he added.

“At first it could have been an aircraft, but when the aircraft went over the photographer, it slowed down tremendously. It’s maybe an optical illusion or it could have been a drone. I couldn’t say positively,” added Levy.

Video 3: Triangle of lights in the night sky

Footage captured on Sunday, Dec. 1 in Mendham, New Jersey, shows three green floating dots in the sky. @MendhamMike/Storyful

View video here

Frantzman said this video appeared quite clearly to be a plane.

Aimer explained: “In a commercial aircraft you must have certain types of lights to operate between dawn and dusk. One is position lights – a green and red light on each wing tip and a tail light. Then there are strobe lights at the top and bottom of the aircraft which are usually red, and there are high intensity strobe lights that must be on day and night.

“In my opinion, these Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) are being flown by ‘monkey see, monkey do’ guys trying their new remote drone systems that are small enough not to require registration, without knowing the rules and regulations. They’re probably trying to look for and catch one of these mysterious drones they’ve been hearing about. That’s why all of a sudden we see more reports of these UAS.”

Frantzman also said: “Look at flight tracking sites, the airspace is very crowded, and people should understand when they look up they’re going to see all sorts of phenomena so identifying everything they see as an unmanned aircraft is probably a mistake.”

Seth Frantzman, author of “Drone Wars: Pioneers, Killing Machines, Artificial Intelligence, and the Battle for the Future,” who is also a retired pilot. Courtesy of Seth Frantzman

Video 4: Taken from a plane window as it prepares to land

A supposed drone captured close to the flightpath of a plane coming in to land at LaGuardia airport in New York. Various online sources have since pinpointed it as another plane. tryingtobuildapc1234/Reddit

View video here

The experts all agreed this was a video of a plane passing another.  

“Even if it is a type of unmanned drone, which is unlikely, the fact it is flying with lights at night indicates it is flying within the types of regulations one would expect an aircraft to do in civilian airspace,” said Frantzman.

Online sleuths even claimed they had managed to pinpoint where the video, from Dec 14. was taken by looking at the ground visible in the video and the time. They also identified the two planes involved, a United plane from Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, to Newark and a Delta flight from Fort Lauderdale, Florida, to LaGuardia. The original poster of the video also later acknowledged the data matches.

Video 5: Dual floating beacons  

One of the videos shaed by Kim showing what he describes as multiple unidentified drones flying over New Jersey. However, it is difficult to say exactly what they are from the video. Andy Kim via Storyful

View video here

“The quality of the video makes it difficult to make out what type of aircraft or even stars or planets are in it, but it would appear to be planes, planets or stars,” said Frantzman, hedging his bets.

He added: “Look at flight tracking sites, the airspace is very crowded, and people should understand when they look up they’re going to see all sorts of phenomena so identifying everything they see as an unmanned aircraft is probably a mistake.”

The other experts agreed that the video was taken too far away to say for certain what the objects in the sky were or how they were moving.

Aimer explained that if the craft were posing any significant threat to security, they wouldn’t be there for long.

“If any regular aircraft violates Temporary Flight Restriction (TFR) areas or the permanent ones like at Air Force bases they deploy fighter jets to escort that intruder out or sometimes have orders to shoot that aircraft down.

“I’m not really worried about these drones because if they posed a danger, we have the technology to detect that, deal with them and shoot them.

Captain Ross “Rusty” Aimer says people should remain calm as it doesn’t appear drones are disrupting flights or a threat to the public. Courtesy of Captain Ross “Rusty” Aimer
Retired airline pilot captain Richard Levy, who is now now CEO of Aviation Expert Consulting, said planes are often mistaken for other aircraft, such as drones. Courtesy of Richard Levy

“Anytime there is any possible danger, believe me they will shoot them down, there’s no question about it.

“They could read that digital license plate on the drone and go look for the owner.  It can be read remotely by simply an app on your cell phone.

“If they can’t read its digital license plate, they take other measures like sending a fighter jet to scramble or shoot it down if it becomes dangerously close to some place they don’t want you to fly, like the White House.”

Video 6: Mysterious vapors, more seemingly floating objects   

A vapor trail in the sky highlighted by one spotter as suspicious AP/Trisha Bushey/Christopher Stadulis
Another unidentified floating object spotted near Clinton Township in New Jersey, wher the majority of drone sightings have taken place. AP/Trisha Bushey/Christopher Stadulis

View video here

“Anyone can tell it’s an airliner — that is the only one where it is absolutely clear it is an aircraft,” said Levy.

“The quality of the video makes it difficult to determine what is being seen, but it appears likely to be planes, manned aircraft,” said Frantzman.

Many lawmakers are calling for answers but the experts said if there were a risk to the public, we’d know about it now or have seen the effects. But the authorities should work to quell people’s fear.

“The government should be better about what we can expect to see in the night sky. They have let people work themselves up into a hysteria they don’t need to be in,” Frantzman added.

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