(NewsNation) — Drone sightings in New Jersey have become a “nightly spectacle” for Garden State residents, including state lawmakers.
Assemblyman Mike Inganamort is one of the eyewitnesses to the unexplained phenomenon that has been gaining national attention since mid-November.
The conversation began after flying objects were spotted near Picatinny Arsenal, a U.S. military research and manufacturing facility, and President-elect Donald Trump’s golf course in Bedminster, New Jersey.
Lawmakers and residents have said they’re frustrated over the federal government’s lack of transparency and inability to provide answers.
The FBI instead asked the public to provide them with information and to report drones they come across. The Pentagon said Wednesday there was “no evidence these are coming from a foreign entity or the work of an adversary.”
Here are some of the firsthand accounts of the drone sightings, as told to NewsNation by eyewitnesses.
What do the drones look like?
Inganamort, whose district includes a quarter million constituents, said he and his family have seen the drones for four weeks. On Friday, as he walked into his office, he said he saw multiple hovering overhead.
“There were three drones zipping around our neighborhood and above this office building as I walked in,” Inganamort said. “I expect to see several on my way out.”
The former mayor of Chester Township isn’t the only eyewitness to dozens of drones.
NewsNation’s investigative reporter Rich McHugh reported seeing at least 50 during an investigation with the Ocean County Sheriff’s Department Thursday.
“When this story first came out a few weeks ago, as a resident of New Jersey, as a journalist, I didn’t pay much credence. I thought it would turn out to be a bunch of pranksters, and this would all be over by now,” McHugh said Friday. “The experience I had last night, however, changed the way I feel about this story completely. What I saw was more sophisticated than I ever imagined.”
NewsNation crews filmed some of the mystery drones in Red Bank, New Jersey, which is about 50 miles south of New York.
McHugh described them as looking like u- or v-shaped, fixed-wing aircraft about 8 to 10 feet wide with colorful and white blinking lights.
“Definitely not an airplane, but what was it?” McHugh said.
The Ocean County Sheriff’s Department said the drones do not emit heat like regular drones, which is why they’re able to evade detection — something law enforcement hadn’t experienced until now.
Sheriff Michael Mastronardy told NewsNation that his officers identified 50 drones coming off the coast.
He invited White House officials to come to New Jersey: “Come see what we see.”
“If this is not our military, then we need answers,” McHugh said, also describing the objects as “creepy” and “moving at a different pace.”
New Jersey lawmakers spot drones
The federal government has offered little explanation, angering current and former lawmakers, some of whom have seen the drones.
Former New Jersey Gov. Larry Hogan captured video of what he identified as drones over his home in Davidsonville, Maryland, 25 miles east of the nation’s capital.
U.S. Sen. Andy Kim, D-N.J., posted a firsthand video of drones in Clinton Township, New Jersey, this week.
Officials say they received unconfirmed reports of drone sightings over LaGuardia Airport, in New York. The FBI said it has received more than 3,000 reports since Nov. 18, and there has been an average of 92 sightings daily across half a dozen states.
Drone sightings across multiple states
Reports have surfaced in eastern Pennsylvania as well.
“It’s as if they migrated over,” said Dr. Katherine Ramsland, a forensic psychologist and NewsNation contributor. “I called a couple of friends, and we were texting each other as all of us seeing them in different areas.”
She, too, saw blinking lights.
“I saw one going west. It was red, red blinking lights … another one was coming toward it from the west, going east, and then the westward one suddenly turned around and went into formation with the one going east turned green, the lights turned green, and then yellow,” Ramsland said.
She said it “couldn’t possibly” have been a plane, as it was turning fast and hovering too close to be one. There wasn’t any noise, she said.
Scott Rouse, a NewsNation contributor who is a behavior analyst and body language expert, describes the ones he saw in Oak Ridge, Tennesee, as round with something spinning on top. He said he saw around 30 of them.
