Congressman says 50 drones spotted off coast

More than a dozen drones tracked a 47-foot Coast Guard boat Sunday evening, while police tracked another 50 drones that came ashore from the sea at Island State Park, Rep. Chris Smith said.

Meanwhile, an FBI deputy director admitted that the agency doesn’t know who is behind the unidentified drones flying over New Jersey.

Authorities confirmed that the drones did not come from local military bases.

The mystery surrounding the unidentified drones deepened on Tuesday when federal officials admitted during a congressional hearing that they cannot say definitively whether the drones pose a threat, despite repeated assurances from Gov. Murphy and other officials.

MORE:Ocean County Sheriff Searching for Mysterious Drones; Monmouth releases drone map

“There’s nothing known that would cause me to say that, but we just don’t know and that’s the concerning part,” Robert Wheeler, FBI deputy director, said during the congressional hearing.

Deputy Christopher Smith said during the hearing and in an interview on Fox News that he went drone hunting with Ocean County Sheriff Michael Mastronardy at Island Beach State Park on Monday. He said they went to that beach because a police officer counted 50 drones flying from the sea to land the night before.

Additionally, he said a Coast Guard official told him that one of their 47-foot-long vessels was tracked in the sea by 12 to 30 drones.

“I think this is a very serious threat,” Smith said.

He added that when he asked officials at Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst why they couldn’t shoot down the drones, he was told they didn’t have the authority to do so. Smith urged officials at the hearing to grant military authorization to shoot down the drones so their identity and capability could be determined.

During the congressional hearing, Wheeler said the FBI does not know those responsible for the drones that have flooded New Jersey in recent weeks.

According to verified eyewitness accounts, some of the drones were larger than commercial drones and were both rotary and fixed-wing aircraft, Wheeler said.

“It worries me that we don’t know the answer yet,” he said

Drones are not military

The Picatinny Arsenal and Naval Weapons Station Earle said they were not responsible for the recent scattering of devices in the sky, leading to continued confusion about the mysterious objects.

Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst did not immediately respond for comment.

After receiving initial reports of the sightings several weeks ago, Picatinny Arsenal officials immediately began investigating and increased outreach and coordination with multiple local, state and federal partner organizations to obtain additional information, including Lt. Col. Craig A. Bonham II, Picatinny Arsenal Garrison commander, said.

“While the source and cause of these aircraft operating in our area remains unknown, we can confirm that they are not the result of any activity related to Picatinny Arsenal,” Bonham said.

MORE:Mysterious Drones Spotted in Monmouth, Ocean County: Police

In response to the drones, State Senator Jon Bramnick called on Murphy to “issue a limited state of emergency banning all drones until the public receives an explanation regarding these multiple sightings.”

New Jersey has seen a staggering number of drone attacks since mid to late November. The unidentified drone sightings were also reported in Bergen, Esssex, Hunterdon, Morris, Passaic, Sussex, Somerset and Warren counties. Some eyewitnesses reported seeing “car-sized” objects seemingly rising in the sky at sunset. They hovered over reservoirs, military installations and critical infrastructure.

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Congressman says 50 drones spotted off coast

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