A Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) sign warns against the use of drones, in this illustration. REUTERS
WASHINGTON, (Reuters) – The Federal Aviation Administration on Thursday said it was temporarily barring drone flights over 22 utility locations in New Jersey and plans to impose similar restrictions at sites in New York.
The FAA said the decision to bar drones for 30 days at the New Jersey sites was made in an abundance of caution at the request of federal security agencies after the FAA barred flights over two locations in New Jersey in November.
A frenzy of concern about drones in New Jersey and surrounding states has prompted a dramatic spike in the number of people in the area pointing lasers at airplanes flying overhead, which is illegal and can be dangerous, the FAA said on Wednesday.
U.S. agencies have repeatedly said that the spike in drone sightings does not pose national security risks and that they appear to be mostly aircraft, stars or hobbyist drones.
The locations subject to the temporary ban across New Jersey include PSE&G (PEG.N), electrical switching stations, substations, generating stations, a utility command center and other facilities in places including Elizabeth, Edison, South Brunswick, Camden, Metuchen and Bridgewater.
The FAA plans to temporarily bar drone flights over critical infrastructure locations in New York, the state’s governor said late on Thursday.
Governor Kathy Hochul said in a statement she had spoken to Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and he told her the FAA planned to grant temporary flight restrictions over some of New York’s critical infrastructure sites.
“This action is purely precautionary; there are no threats to these sites,” Hochul said.
The FAA, which did not immediately comment, is expected to post the New York sites by Friday. The FAA also said on Thursday that it was extending prohibitions on drones over President-elect Donald Trump’s golf course in Bedminster, New Jersey, through Jan. 31.
The Department of Homeland Security said the restrictions “do not impact manned aviation including airplanes and helicopters. While DHS and our federal partners continue to see no evidence of a threat, the purpose of the TFR is to discourage drone flights around these areas, as requested by the critical infrastructure partners.”
The FAA said on Wednesday that reports are up 269% to 59 in the first half of December, compared with eight in the same period last year. The FAA said it has received dozens of new laser reports from pilots in New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania airspace.
The FBI in New Jersey warned people on Wednesday not to shoot at suspected drones or point lasers at them, warning that “there could be dangerous and possibly deadly consequences if manned aircraft are targeted mistakenly” as drones.
Officials have repeatedly said that most of the large fixed-wing sightings involved manned aircraft, and came after Trump on Monday called for more federal comment on the reported sightings.
About 1 million registered drones are flying about 42 million flights annually.
Reporting by David Shepardson; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama, Mark Porter and Leslie Adler
