# 2024 United States drone sightings

The 2024 United States drone sightings, also known as the New Jersey drone sightings, were a series of reports between November and December 2024 involving large, unidentified drones observed at night across several regions of the United States. The phenomenon began in New Jersey, where numerous sightings were reported over multiple counties. The sightings raised concerns among residents and garnered widespread attention in the news and on social media. In response, local, state, and federal authorities initiated investigations. Similar reports soon emerged from neighboring states, including New York and Pennsylvania. Reports of unidentified drones later expanded to other Northeastern states and eventually across the United States. Sightings were reported over residential areas and key infrastructure, including civilian and military sites.
The reported sightings largely consisted of authorized drones and misidentified manned aircraft, celestial bodies, and other routine aerial objects. Some overflights of sensitive military areas remain unresolved, though experts such as Jamey Jacob suggested they were likely careless actors, and the Pentagon noted that drone flyovers are common and are generally not nefarious. Commentators also attributed the sightings to widespread confirmation bias and mass hysteria, and compared the rash of reports to a traditional UFO flap. A joint investigation by civilian and military agencies of the U.S. government failed to find anything anomalous, and said that sightings include mistaken aircraft and other objects. State and local law enforcement as well as numerous independent experts reported similar conclusions. Alternative explanations for the reported drones, such as military operations or efforts to locate nuclear materials, received limited support.
The reported sightings and ensuing investigations prompted responses from officials at various levels of government. Representatives called for greater transparency from investigative agencies, and additional resources for state and local officials to investigate the sightings. Legislation was proposed to help address the reported sightings, and flight restrictions were imposed over sensitive infrastructure in New York and New Jersey.

## Background

The FAA estimated that in 2024 there would be approximately 2.8 million commercial and recreational drones operating in the United States. As of 2024, the agency also estimates it receives more than 100 reports of drone sightings each month and organizes a "Know Before You Fly" marketing campaign to educate drone users about unauthorized operation and the potential civil penalties for illicit use.
Reporting on the case of the 2024 sightings, one journalist noted that New Jersey has for generations "played host to stories of the strange and the surreal, including Martian invasions and ghostly treasure guardians". In 1938, some residents of New Jersey erupted into panic after mistaking the fictional CBS Radio drama "The War of the Worlds" for a news report of an alien invasion of Grovers Mill, New Jersey.
In 2016, the FAA began working on new technology to detect drone use near airports. Dubbed "Pathfinder", the initiative was organized to address the growing problem of unauthorized hobby drone use in off-limits areas. Unidentified drones had been reported in the United States for several years prior to the 2024 reports. In late 2019 and 2020, there was a wave of reports of sightings over Colorado and Nebraska.
Federal authorities acknowledged other sightings within the United States and internationally. Multiple unidentified drone incursions were reported at Langley Air Force Base in Virginia in December 2023 and March 2024. The second wave of sightings resulted in a major response by U.S. government aircraft, including a NASA aircraft. A wave of drone sightings over Plant 42, a U.S. Air Force facility in Palmdale, California, caused a major wave of concern in August 2024. The U.S. Air Force officially confirmed these reports, in replies to journalists' inquiries. In response, the FAA imposed new restrictions in the airspace over that facility.
In November 2024, similar unexplained drone incursions were also reported at U.S. air bases in the United Kingdom. The following month, drones were seen over the U.S. air base Ramstein in Germany as well as German arms manufacturing facilities. According to Major General Patrick S. Ryder, it is normal for private drones to periodically fly over U.S. military bases, and such operation was "not unusual, and the vast majority pose no physical threat to our forces or impact our operations".

## Reported sightings and incidents

The first reported sighting occurred at Picatinny Arsenal in Morris County, New Jersey on November 13, 2024. By November 18, additional sightings were reported in Morris County and the neighoring Somerset County. The sightings, initially concentrating around the Raritan River corridor, soon spread across New Jersey, including to the counties of Bergen, Burlington, Camden, Essex, Middlesex, Monmouth, Ocean, Passaic, Sussex, Union, and Warren. Reports eventually extended beyond New Jersey, reaching New York City, Orange County (New York), Philadelphia, and various parts of eastern Pennsylvania. Related sightings also emerged in California, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Ohio, Texas, Utah, and Virginia.
The sightings were reported over residential neighborhoods and near sensitive locations, including military installations, emergency communication centers, local law enforcement facilities, and the Round Valley Reservoir. Drones were also observed near critical infrastructure, such as highways, railways, power stations, transmission lines, and nuclear power plants in New Jersey, New York, and Maryland.
Claimants offered various descriptions, including that the drones were as big as SUVs, that they were sometimes accompanied by loud humming, and that fixed-wing aircraft were sometimes identified in the same vicinity. Some experts reviewing footage grouped the purported drones into two categories: quadcopters and fixed-wing aircraft.
By December 24, 2024, reports of drone sightings in northern New Jersey had "decreased dramatically" according to the Ocean County sheriff's office. News website DroneXL reported on January 5, 2025, that the drone sightings were no longer receiving news coverage or attention on social media, and that the "hysteria has subsided".

### Military reported sightings

There were multiple drone sightings over Picatinny Arsenal and Naval Weapons Station Earle, some reported by "highly trained security personnel" according to military officials. The first "confirmed" sighting, witnessed by a police or security officer, was reported on November 13, 2024. That day, a contractor working at Picatinny Arsenal reported seeing a drone near the facility. He said that as he sat in his car, he "saw a flash in the side mirror ... [and then] a light rising straight up from the tree line and toward the arsenal". The man reported what he saw to his superiors. On December 13, multiple drone incursions were reported over Naval Weapons Station Earle. The Joint Chiefs of Staff of the Department of Defense issued a statement on December 14, 2024, confirming certain sightings, that the DoD was unaware of who operated the drones, and that there was no present indication of involvement by adversary nations. They stated that they "have not been able to locate or identify the operators or the points of origin" for the drones seen over Picatinny Arsenal and Naval Weapons Station Earle. They said that they lack the authority required to locate or identify the source of the drones outside the bases, and have to rely on investigation by law enforcement.
Legislators Chris Smith and Paul Kanitra said that at least a dozen drones followed a United States Coast Guard 47-foot Motor Lifeboat. Coast Guard officer Luke Pinneo stated that "multiple low-altitude aircraft were observed in the vicinity" of one of their vessels. On December 17, 2024, White House spokesman John Kirby said that, after doing forensics on the incident, the reported aircraft turned out to be "air traffic going into JFK International Airport, and not drones at all." Smith challenged the White House's conclusions, pointing to the experience level of the officers who reported the sighting.
A press release on December 10, 2024, from Hill Air Force Base in Davis County, Utah stated that, "unidentified drone swarms have recently been observed over several U.S. military bases." The base also confirmed that drone sightings were reported nearby but they had no impact on base operations. Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio was forced to close airspace due to drone incursions on December 13 into the next morning, with United States military officials of the 88th Air Base Wing stating the events happened due to "small unmanned aerial systems". On December 17, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base was again impacted by the unidentified drones in a second incursion. On December 18, White Settlement, Texas police confirmed that with the FBI, Naval Criminal Investigative Service and Air Force were investigating drone incidents on December 17 at Naval Air Station Joint Reserve Base Fort Worth and a nearby Texas Army National Guard armory.
A Chinese national was arrested by federal officials for flying a drone over Vandenberg Air Force Base in California on December 11, 2024. The man was detained at San Francisco International Airport while attempting to board a flight to China. On December 18, the United States Marine Corps confirmed the presence of the unidentified drones over Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton in San Diego County, California, with confirmed incursions occurring between December 9 and December 15.

### Civilian reported sightings

Drone activity was observed by law enforcement on November 19 according to the Morris Country Prosecutor's Office in New Jersey. On November 26, 2024, a medical evacuation helicopter in New Jersey was delayed in transporting a seriously injured patient due to nearby reports of drone activity. Staten Island Borough President Vito Fossella said on December 13 that there were sightings over "critical infrastructure" such as Port Liberty New York, the Goethals Bridge, the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge, and Fort Wadsworth. On December 13, Stewart International Airport in Orange County, NY, was forced to shut down for an hour due to drone activity, which was later confirmed by Governor Hochul.
Senator Andy Kim joined the Clinton Township Police for a nighttime patrol on December 12, 2024, and reported "a number of different drones" near the Round Valley Reservoir – though he later acknowledged "most of the possible drone sightings that were pointed out to me were almost certainly planes". Also that day, a drone crashed in the backyard of a private residence in Pequannock Township, New Jersey. Initially reported as "military-grade", a police investigation later identified it as a toy drone. Officials suggested it was one of many "copycat" drones in the area.
   * Larry Hogan @GovLarryHogan
   Last night, beginning at around 9:45 pm, I personally witnessed (and videoed) what appeared to be dozens of large drones in the sky above my residence in Davidsonville, Maryland (25 miles from our nation's capital). I observed the activity for approximately 45 minutes.
In a post to his account on X on December 13, former Maryland governor Larry Hogan showed a video of stars and airplanes, believing them to be dozens of large drones, above his home in Davidsonville, Maryland. In response to Hogan, New York Post journalist Steven Greenstreet pointed out that the recorded video actually showed the constellation Orion and that, additionally, flight data from the time of the video showed three aircraft flying near where it was filmed. Meteorologist Matthew Cappucci also observed that Hogan was actually viewing the constellation Orion, as did University of Maryland Observatory director Elizabeth Warner. Users of X subsequently added a community note to Hogan's post asserting that "no anomalous objects appear in his video" and late night comedian Stephen Colbert joked about Hogan and his sighting in his December 16 television monologue.
In Massachusetts on December 15, Boston Police identified three local residents whom they said were operating consumer grade drones in restricted airspace near Logan International Airport. Police found the men operating drones from a position on Long Island and, after a pursuit, arrested two of the three. Both men were arraigned in the Boston Municipal Court and released on personal recognizance.

### FAA airspace restrictions

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) banned the use of drones in multiple areas in New Jersey and New York State. On November 25, 2024, they issued temporary restrictions which affected Picatinny Arsenal and President Trump's Bedminster golf club.
On December 18, the FAA issued a one-month ban on drone operations near 22 cities in New Jersey, including Camden, Elizabeth, and Jersey City. The next day, they issued a ban on drone flights over parts of New York State, including Brooklyn, Queens, and communities in Long Island. The FAA said the restrictions were due to "special security reasons" and were requested by other federal authorities. New York Governor Kathy Hochul said that the restricted areas include "critical infrastructure sites" and that the action was "purely precautionary."
On December 30, 2024, the FAA implemented several new drone restrictions in various parts of New Jersey, all of which were set to last until January 18, 2025. The new restrictions were imposed across areas in Gloucester County, Hudson County, Middlesex County, Monmouth County and Union County.

## Investigations and findings

The FBI leads an interagency investigation that includes the DHS, the New Jersey Office of Homeland Security and Preparedness, the New Jersey State Police, and other state police agencies. The investigation was reportedly ongoing as of January 21, 2025. Federal investigators did not identify any suspects or recover any drones, and by mid-December 2024, they had determined that most sightings had mundane explanations.
The FBI began their investigation on December 3, 2024, and requested that the public report sightings of possible drones near the Raritan River in New Jersey. The FBI told Congress on December 10 that despite collecting over 3,000 reports from the public via a tip line, investigators had not determined a full explanation.
White House spokesman John Kirby stated on December 12 that none of the visual sightings could be verified and that many reports were actually "manned aircraft that are being operated lawfully." He emphasized that there was no evidence suggesting these sightings pose a security threat or originate from foreign sources. Kirby added that a "thorough analysis" of photos, videos, and "very sophisticated electronic detection technologies provided by federal authorities" had not identified any unauthorized drones. Despite this, Kirby confirmed that the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security would continue investigating the reports. He also called on Congress to pass legislation to help authorities manage drone activity more effectively.
Also on December 12, the Department of Homeland Security released a statement repeating Kirby's remarks, but they also acknowledged the threat that drones pose in general and highlighted the lack of "sufficient authorities" to combat drones. The statement also mentioned prior cases of "mistaken identity" where reported drones turn out to be misidentified as manned aircraft or facilities.
New Jersey Assemblywoman Dawn Fantasia shared her notes from a legislative briefing on December 11 with officials from the DHS, the State Police, and the New Jersey Office of Homeland Security. She said that the officials described drones measuring up to six feet (1.8 m) in diameter operating for six to seven hours per night, sometimes flying with their lights off. Her summary also said the drones seemed to "operate in a coordinated manner", evaded typical means of detection, and did not appear to be flown by hobbyists. Assemblymen Paul Kanitra and Greg Myhre, who also attended the briefing, said that the briefing's findings seem to contradict the White House's December 12 statements.
During an interview with George Stephanopoulos on ABC News, United States Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas confirmed the observation of drones in the United States, stating on December 15, "There's no question that people are seeing drones. And I want to assure the American public that we, in the federal government, have deployed additional resources, personnel, technology to assist the New Jersey State Police in addressing the drone sightings."
On December 16, the Department of Homeland Security released a joint statement with the FBI, FAA, and DoD, in which it asserted that the four agencies' investigation had failed to identify "anything anomalous" after reviewing over 5,000 reported sightings, and that most of the sightings it examined had routine explanations. The agencies stated they did not assess the activity "to present a national security or public safety risk," noting that most sightings were identified as commercial, hobbyist, law enforcement drones, or conventional aircraft. The statement also addressed the reported military sightings, stating that some of them occurred within restricted air space. The agencies stated that such sightings were "not new", and that the DoD "takes unauthorized access over its airspace seriously."
On January 28, 2025, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt stated:
   I do have news directly from the President of the United States that was just shared with me in the Oval Office, from President Trump directly, an update on the New Jersey drones. After research and study, the drones that were flying over New Jersey in large numbers were authorized to be flown by the FAA for research and various other reasons. Many of these drones were also hobbyists, recreational and private individuals that enjoy flying drones. In time, it got worse due to curiosity. This was not the enemy.

### State and local investigations

In early December, local New Jersey law enforcement officials voiced concerns over drones' potentially "nefarious" nature. On December 13, John Mitzak, the chief of the Bridgewater, New Jersey police department, issued a statement that "many of the reports received involve misidentification of manned aircraft". Other New Jersey officials reported on December 17 that specialized "drone-detecting devices" the state had deployed over the preceding week found "little to no evidence" of anything that might constitute a threat.
The Connecticut State Police announced on December 13 the deployment of drone detection systems in response to sightings in Connecticut, specifically in Fairfield County. On December 16, the state police announced they "found that most [drone sightings] could be attributed to manned aircraft or those UAS devices operating in the private sector in a legal manner". Governor of Connecticut Ned Lamont noted that one of the reported drones that was sighted "had the word Frontier on the back", apparently indicating it was a Frontier Airlines aircraft.
The New York Police Department (NYPD) reported that, during the weekend of December 14–15, it received about 120 calls related to drone sightings but, upon investigation, most weren't drones at all but were manned aircraft, meteor showers, and the planet Venus. In other cases, the NYPD said, drones that were correctly sighted were actually hobbyist drones that were being flown in response to the discussion of purported anomalous drones, thereby, according to the New York Times, "triggering even more reports of unusual activity". Other instances involved lights being reflected against passing aircraft by amateur astronomers. Following her requests for federal assistance, New York Governor Kathy Hochul confirmed on December 15 that the federal government was "sending a drone detection system to New York" in order to help track reported drones. U.S. Senator from New York, Chuck Schumer, also requested for a similar system to be sent to New Jersey.
On December 14, Governors Maura Healey of Massachusetts and Glenn Youngkin of Virginia confirmed state investigations into the increasing sightings, with the latter citing concerns over national security and critical infrastructure. Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro ordered Pennsylvania State Police to investigate sightings, and confirmed law enforcement would use helicopters to pursue and determine where the drones originate from and their purpose.

## Responses

The White House confirmed that President Biden was aware of the situation on December 10, 2024. The next day, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas briefed New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy and the state's Congressional delegation on the sightings. President Biden made his first public comments on December 18, stating there was "nothing nefarious, apparently" and "no sense of danger so far," adding that "we're following it closely" and noting "a lot of drones authorized up there."
On December 10, New Jersey State Senator Jon Bramnick suggested a "limited state of emergency" and a temporary ban on drone use until the situation was resolved. New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy wrote to President Biden on December 12, expressing "growing concern" about the drone reports. He requested improved coordination between agencies and additional congressional authorization for state and local law enforcement to counter drone activities.
United States Senators Chuck Schumer, Kirsten Gillibrand, Cory Booker, and Andy Kim sent a letter to the FBI, DHS and FAA on December 12, requesting briefings regarding their efforts to address the situation. On December 15, Senator Schumer requested the Department of Homeland Security deploy specialized drone detection systems to New York and New Jersey.
Then President-elect Donald Trump suggested on December 13 that the U.S. military should shoot down unidentified drones. Days later, Trump said that "the government knows what is happening", and promised to release a report on the drone sightings on his first day in office.
The Late Show with Stephen Colbert host Stephen Colbert told several jokes about the drone sightings during his December 16, 2024 monologue on the program. Comedian Bowen Yang performed a skit during the December 21 episode of Saturday Night Live in which he portrayed an anthropomorphic drone of the type purportedly seen in New Jersey.
A poll by CBS News posted on December 22 showed that 78% of Americans believed the U.S. Government was withholding information about the drone sightings from the public.

## Possible explanations

   "9 Explanations for the Drone Sightings Over New Jersey, Ranked From Most to Least Likely", from an article in Popular Mechanics
   * "People are noticing drones that have always been around."
   * "Natural and human-made phenomena are being misidentified as drones."
   * "The wave is being exacerbated by real drone operators pranking the public."
   * "The drones are being flown by spies from hostile countries with nefarious intent."
   * "The drones are being flown by terrorists."
   * "The drones are owned by the government and are searching for lost radioactive material."
   * "The drones are spraying chemicals."
   * "The drones are part of an effort to enslave mankind and create a one-world dictatorship."
   * "The drones are actually alien spaceships."
According to Popular Mechanics, the most likely reasons for the drone sightings were that people were "noticing drones that have always been around" or "natural and human-made phenomena ... [were] being misidentified as drones". Their least likely explanation was that the drones had an extraterrestrial origin.

### Authorized drones

Popular Mechanics said that the strongest explanation for the sightings was people noticing ordinary drones which had been around for years. In January 2025, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said the reported drones had been authorized by the FAA.
Brandon Valeriano, a professor at Seton Hall University specializing in cybersecurity, indicated the sightings were probably connected to hobbyist drone use, and that some members of the public had sought "wild explanations for the things they can't understand".
The FAA estimated that 2.8 million drones would operate in the United States in 2024, and the White House confirmed that over a million drones were registered with the FAA as of 2024, with "thousands of commercial, hobbyist and law enforcement drones that are lawfully in the sky on any given day".

### Military, domestic and foreign

Congressman Jeff Van Drew claimed on December 11, 2024, that he had information from "very high sources" that "Iran launched a mothership that contains these drones". Later that day, the Pentagon refuted his statements, saying that there were no Iranian ships off the coast of the U.S., and no evidence that the drones originated from foreign adversaries. New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy also questioned the veracity of Van Drew's claims, suggesting Iran did not have the capabilities to undertake such a mission. In response, according to Politico, Van Drew "appeared to soften his assertion" and also suggested the drones could be "Chinese".
Congressman Michael McCaul, Chair of House Foreign Affairs Committee, said on December 17 that he believes some of the unidentified aircraft were 'spy drones' from China, based on reports that the Chinese government owns farmland in the vicinity of military bases throughout the U.S. Other lawmakers and civilians proposed foreign countries as the source of the sightings, but federal investigators repeatedly rejected this notion. Former U.S. Air Force general James Poss was skeptical of the foreign adversary explanation because the aircraft use FAA-compliant lighting: "When people turn their lights on their drones off at night, it tells you it's the world's worst terrorist or exactly the kind of enemy you want to fight."
On January 1, 2025, Matthew Livelsberger, a U.S. Army Special Forces soldier and drone warfare specialist, committed suicide in a car bombing in Las Vegas. In a suicide note sent to a podcast prior to his death, Livelsberger claimed he had decided to kill himself to raise awareness of the threat and inappropriate military application of drones, generally, and also claimed that the drones purportedly sighted in the United States were Chinese and employed "gravitic propulsion systems".

### Misidentification of aircraft and celestial objects

Drone expert William Austin's analysis of imagery and reports related to the sightings led him to believe that "many of the reported 'large drones' were actually manned aircraft mistakenly identified" while others were the lights of cell towers, or smaller, personal use drones. By December 15, Austin reported having completed review of a large amount of video of the sightings and had come to the conclusion that "100 percent of them are either airplanes that people have misidentified or drones that have grown in use since the media attention and are under 55 pounds". In some cases, according to Austin, misidentification might be the result of the parallax effect. Asked by a reporter from WNEP-TV to analyze video of the drone sightings, the owners of three different UAV retail stores said they felt most of the objects spotted were either manned aircraft or the result of "nighttime illusion".
Jamey Jacob, a professor in aerospace engineering at Oklahoma State University, attributed the sightings to misidentification "largely driven by social media and the inability to determine what's real and what's not". Jacob also noted that reported drone sightings near military facilities were probably mostly "careless actors, rather than those trying to pose a legitimate threat". Vijay Kumar, dean of Penn Engineering, said that most of the images he saw in relation to the sightings were of legally operating aircraft and that popular fear about drones was due to their association with "science fiction-like scenarios where machines have autonomy". Missy Cummings, a professor of engineering at George Mason University, said that people were likely observing stars, aircraft, and reflections from objects, and that, "of all of those options, drone is the least likely, because it's actually pretty hard to pick these out of the sky".
Amie Gallagher, director of the planetarium at Raritan Valley Community College in Branchburg, New Jersey, interviewed about possible explanations for the sightings, observed the phenomenon of autokinesis in which a person, staring at a celestial object, experiences "the muscles in ... their eye try[ing] to focus on the object" which creates the illusion of motion. Skeptic Mick West suggested many of the sightings were cases of misidentification and videos claiming to show drones with unusual characteristics could be explained by the poor quality of smartphone camera optics.
Former United States Representative Adam Kinzinger told CNN on December 15 that he'd spent "days looking at every one of these videos" of the drones and concluded "they're all literally airplanes". Kinzinger went on to explain to anchor Fredricka Whitfield that members of the public were panicking over aerial objects they wrongly perceived to be something other than high-altitude jets. Tom Adams, a private sector counter-drone defense consultant and former FBI agent, said that, in his experience, satellites, aircraft, and celestial objects were often misidentified as drones, and that media coverage of the purported sightings was creating "a little hysteria".
The FBI's Newark field office asked New Jersey residents to refrain from pointing lasers at objects in the sky they believed to be anomalous drones, citing "an increase of pilots of manned aircraft being hit in the eye with lasers." The December 16 statement also urged residents not to fire weapons into the sky, warning of the "possibly deadly consequences" for civil aviation.

### Mislabeled and doctored videos

A number of images widely circulated on social media purporting to show evidence of drone sightings were mislabeled imagery of older drone videos, doctored film, or AI-generated video. According to Popular Science, TikTok hosted "some of the most blatant and widely seen fake videos" purporting to evidence drone sightings.
One widely circulated video posted to Threads purported to show multiple low-flying drones hovering over a U.S. city, though the video was later identified as two-year old footage from China showing government UAVs spraying a disinfectant aerosol during the COVID-19 pandemic. Another video posted to Instagram showed gunfire being directed at a drone from the ground, though the original uploader of the video reported he had edited the video to add sound and visual effects as a creative exercise and other social media users purloined the video while stripping the disclaimers from it. A social media post shared by Doug Mastriano included an image of an object labeled as a "crashed drone", though the object was later identified as a TIE fighter movie prop. Other cases of social media videos labeled as showing examples of unidentified drones were actually imagery of drone light shows that, in some cases, were several years old.

### Nuclear material search

In a December 17 television interview, the mayor of Belleville, New Jersey suggested the drones were government-operated UAVs and stated that "in my opinion, they're looking for something. What might they be looking for? Maybe that's radioactive material" before noting that a radioactive-emitting device used in medical applications had recently been reported missing by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Congresswoman Nicole Malliotakis, and other elected officials from Staten Island, New York, subsequently sent a letter to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) inquiring about the missing device and "the actions it [DHS] is taking to mitigate the issue and protect Americans' health and public safety".
On December 18, a spokesman for Nazha Cancer Center, which mailed the missing part, stated the component — an Eckert & Ziegler model HEGL-0132 — contained an insignificant amount of Germanium-68 that was depleted prior to shipment, and that the device had been recovered, in any case. A spokesperson for the National Nuclear Security Administration stated the agency's Nuclear Emergency Support Team did not use drones for "nuclear/radiological detection missions, and is not currently conducting any aerial operations in that region".

### Psychological and social explanations

Journalists, psychologists, and neurologists called the drone sightings a "mass panic" or "mass delusion", and characterized it as a variation of the traditional UFO flap. Mass panic — sometimes called mass delusion or social delusion — is a form of collective behavior within a society that occurs in response to exaggerated beliefs that spread among the population. It is sometimes casually used interchangeably with the term "mass hysteria", though the latter term more precisely refers to a medical condition. In a December 13 column for the Washington Post, Max Boot suggested the sightings could be at least partly explained by "mass hysteria" which, he noted, was "a recurring feature of American life". The War Zone's Tyler Rogoway also suggested "mass hysteria" and misidentified aircraft could be the cause of the wave of sightings.
Neurologist William J. Bernstein suggested in an episode of Crooked Media's "What a Day" podcast that the purported drone sightings were a case of "mass delusion". Psychologist Gary Small also described it as a case of "mass panic" or a "shared delusion". Andrew McCarthy, a space photographer, said that "every single video I've analyzed of this phenomenon has been either a normal helicopter or plane" and that the sightings had "become a social contagion where people are going outside and watching air traffic for the first time and assuming it's unknown aircraft".
A professor of astronomy at LaGuardia Community College suggested that the widespread nature of the sightings might have been a case of confirmation bias in which the public were misinterpreting mundane or routine phenomena.