A New Jersey sheriff claimed Friday that a swarm of 50 large drones flew in from the ocean, but soon “vanished into thin air” after the Coast Guard tried to intercept them.
Ocean County Sheriff Michael Mastronardy told News Nation that Coast Guard officers reported being followed by over 50 drones coming off the water, with some flying as low as 300 feet above them.
NEW: NewsNation reporter says his entire view of the New Jersey drones has changed after he witnessed 50 of them flying from the ocean.
— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) December 14, 2024
The drones are reportedly 8-10 feet wide and can’t be detected because they don’t give off heat.
“I gotta be honest here. You know when this… pic.twitter.com/2tVGasw2bc
News Nation reporter Rich McHugh said he was initially skeptical about the drone story, but had a change of heart after seeing some of the drones for himself, which he said was “more sophisticated than I ever imagined.”
“I got to be honest here. When this story first came out a few weeks ago, as a resident of New Jersey and as a journalist, I didn’t pay it much credence. I thought it would turn out to be a bunch of pranksters, and this would all be over by now. The experience I had last night, however, changed how I feel about this story completely. What I saw was more sophisticated than I ever imagined,” McHugh said.
McHugh explained that he and his crew saw “40 or 50” drones that were about “8 to 10 feet wide” with “colorful, white blinking lights.”
“We’ve been looking for the past hour. I think we’ve seen about 40 or 50 of these drones. In fact, there’s one over my shoulder right there,” he said.
“One after another, these drones appeared in the night sky. If you look closely, they look like fixed-wing aircraft, about 8 to 10 feet wide, with colorful, white blinking lights,” he added.
The Ocean County Sheriff’s Department also noted these drones largely avoided detection because they don’t give off a heat signature, which is unusual for drones.
Despite prominent numerous lawmakers and President-elect Donald Trump raising concerns about the government’s lack of knowledge about these drones, the White House, Pentagon and DHS Secretary Alexjandro Mayorkas all downplayed the drone sightings.
Both Pentagon spokesman John Kirby and Mayorkas faced criticism after denying the reports of drones altogether and dismissing them as either “small aircraft” or “commercially available” drones.