Drone sightings caused a national stir and sparked debate over their capabilities and future of the technology.
For the past decade, Jennifer Krazinski felt safe living in a home “tucked away, off of a dirt road,” in Hewitt, a northern New Jersey suburb.
But what she recently saw in the night sky left her disquieted.
Near her house, Krazinski noticed flying objects with blinking red-and-white lights, emitting a whirring sound.
After three consecutive nights in mid-December 2024, “I stopped looking for them because it just was overwhelming,” she told The Epoch Times. “This makes me uneasy.”
Krazinski worried that someone was using drones to collect information for some nefarious purpose. But she decided against alerting authorities already inundated with similar reports of apparent drone sightings.
Weeks later, specific answers elude Krazinski and thousands of other Americans who spotted Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena (UAP).
Reports came from at least a half-dozen U.S. states since mid-November 2024 and sparked a wave of concern.
After government officials and drone experts gave non-threatening explanations for nearly all the sightings, the hoopla over so-called “mystery drones” dissipated. However, questions lingered.
President-elect Donald Trump has promised that, soon after his Jan. 20 inauguration, he will release more details about the drone sightings; he said it was “ridiculous” that federal officials had been so tight-lipped.
Because of the attention, the public is more aware of drones—a plus for U.S. drone-makers and sellers.
Drone industry leaders also say the incidents underscore an ongoing dilemma: How to balance security needs and airspace-use restrictions against the drive to innovate drone capabilities and uses?
The need to fine-tune drone regulations and procedures is becoming more critical, considering how fast the industry is growing, experts said.
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) had registered more than 1 million drones as of last month.
And drone use is expected to continue surging.
Worldwide drone sales now total about $30 billion per year; in 10 years, that figure could burgeon to nearly $224 billion, according to Fact.MR’s market research.
Allan Evans, CEO of Unusual Machines, an Orlando-based drone technology company, told The Epoch Times that the spate of sightings dramatically changed Americans’ perceptions of drones.
By Janice Hisle
