White House national security communications adviser John Kirby said the White House, working with the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and state and local authorities, has determined that the mysterious drones flying over the country are in fact “legal.” and expressed the opinion that it is “legal.”
Kirby told Fox News anchor Bret Baier on Monday that in a “special report,” they are investigating about 5,000 sightings and that their analysis to date shows “legal, legal, commercial, and non-profitable sightings.” The sightings were caused by the activity of aircraft enthusiasts and even law enforcement agencies.
“Some of them are manned and some of them are unmanned. We fully acknowledge that many of these are probably drones, but they are flying legally. And as long as they are registered. It is legal to fly a drone in unrestricted airspace. [Federal Aviation Administration] “There are thousands of flights of the same type as the FAA every day,” he added.
A map showing some of the locations where mysterious drones were sighted in the northeastern United States in December 2024. (Fox News)
Department of Defense Spokesperson Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder said at a press conference On Monday, more than 1 million drones are registered with the FAA in the United States, and more than 8,000 drones are legally flown each day.
FBI employee said on the weekend The company's Newark office set up a tip line in early December to handle a large number of calls related to reported drone sightings in New Jersey.
Since Dec. 3, 5,000 tips have been received through the national tip line, of which “fewer than 100 have generated leads that we believe merit further investigative action,” officials said.
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Mr. Baier pressed Mr. Kirby about the drone assessment of the White House. There is no foreign involvement whatsoever.
“We conducted detection and analysis. We corroborated the sightings. And in every case we've investigated so far, we haven't seen anything and there's nothing to indicate a public safety risk.” “Kirby said. “I haven’t seen any coordination with the Department of Defense.” [DOD] Similarly, it indicates a foreign adversary, actor, or any kind of harmful national security threat. ”
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He acknowledged that there have been several instances of drones flying over military bases, which the White House and Pentagon are investigating.
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“This is an ongoing investigation,” Kirby said. “We are still working on this matter. Sightings continue to come in. We take them all seriously and will continue to investigate.”
