A drone sighting briefly closed Stewart Airport in New York on Friday and prompted Gov. Kathy Hochul to call for federal legislation to allow all levels of law enforcement to address the drones. Stewart officials closed the airport, a mostly GA facility and Air National Guard base, which is sometimes used as an alternate for New York airports, for about an hour at 9:30 p.m. after the FAA notified them of a reported drone sighting. Hundreds of sightings over the past month, many of them in New Jersey but also throughout the Northeast, have the public on edge even though federal authorities insist there is no security threat.
Hochul isn’t buying it. “This has gone too far,” she said and called on Congress to pass the Counter-UAS Authority Security, Safety, and Reauthorization Act, which would beef up FAA authority over drones and give local and state law enforcement authority to act. “Extending these powers to New York State and our peers is essential,” she said. Until that can go through Congress, however, she demanded the feds put more resources into investigating and dealing with the drones.
On Sunday, former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie said he’s seen mysterious drones over his house and warned “drone vigilantes” will take matters into their own hands if the government doesn’t do something first. “You’re going to have individuals acting as drone vigilantes, and they’re going to start taking them down,” he told ABC’s George Stephanopoulos.
Meanwhile, the White House continues to downplay the sightings, saying “many” are actually light aircraft and that others are “uncorroborated.” President-elect Donald Trump has called for the government to “shoot them down,” and now it has been confirmed that drones were spotted over the U.S. Air Force base in Ramstein, Germany. Sightings have also been reported in Colorado.
