NJ senator says mysterious drones 'almost certainly planes,' slams federal response

Sen. Andy Kim (D-N.J.) said mysterious drones hovering over the Garden State are likely planes in a Saturday series of posts on the social platform X as public concern mounts over the sightings.

“After going out with police to observe reports of possible drones, I was with the help of civilian pilots and others able to do deeper analysis and concluded that most of the possible drone sightings that were pointed out to me were almost certainly planes,” Kim said in the first post of the thread. 

Kim has been advocating for federal agencies to investigate the sightings since the drones were first spotted and has participated in observations with local law enforcement to search for answers on his own. 

“While not receiving any feedback/info from federal officials, I reached out to civilian aviators/others for analysis,” he said in a second post, which featured a video. 

“I used public flight tracking tools to recreate the conditions of my time out.”

He acknowledged that while much of the air activity was undertaken by planes, some may have seen actual drones.

“I don’t discount others may have seen actual drone activity, and not all I saw is fully explained by flight paths, but much of it was,” Kim wrote. 

“And I think the process through which I got confirmation points to the kind of explanation we need from gov authorities to address the public’s concern.”

Kim noted that press releases without analysis weren’t helpful and encouraged officials to provide more information to citizens.

“Federal experts should provide information and guidance to the public including local police departments like the one that took me out to help them decipher what they are seeing. Instead myself and others requesting are getting no feedback,” he penned.

The new senator promised to get more answers for his community in the coming days.

He took issue with the federal response to the drone sightings earlier this week, arguing his constituents are "not getting answers they need from the federal investigation."