Drone activity shutdowns airport in New York

Editors' note: The above video aired on Dec. 13

NEW YORK (PIX11) – Stewart International Airport was shut down for about an hour on Friday night because of drone activity in the area, New York State Governor Kathy Hochul announced. 

At about 9:40 p.m. on Friday night, the runways at  Stewart Airport were closed following a report of a drone sighting by the FAA, according to the Port Authority.

The runways reopened at 10:45 p.m. and there were no impacts to flights during the closure, a spokesperson said. 

“This has gone too far,” said Hochul in her statement on Saturday. 

The governor called on Congress to strengthen the FAA’s oversight of drones as well as the Biden Administration to address the increasing amount of drone sightings in New York.

Many state and municipal lawmakers have called for stricter rules on unmanned aircraft as drones have been unnerving residents across New Jersey and New York. Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ) also called for drones to be shot down by the military during an interview with NewsNation on Thursday.

White House National Security Communications Advisor John Kirby said on Thursday that many of the thousands of reported drone sightings were “manned aircraft that are being operated lawfully.”

On Thursday the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) released the following joint statement:

"We have no evidence at this time that the reported drone sightings pose a national security or public safety threat or have a foreign nexus. The FBI, DHS and our federal partners, in close coordination with the New Jersey State Police, continue to deploy personnel and technology to investigate this situation and confirm whether the reported drone flights are actually drones or are instead manned aircraft or otherwise inaccurate sightings."We have no evidence at this time that the reported drone sightings pose a national security or public safety threat or have a foreign nexus. The FBI, DHS and our federal partners, in close coordination with the New Jersey State Police, continue to deploy personnel and technology to investigate this situation and confirm whether the reported drone flights are actually drones or are instead manned aircraft or otherwise inaccurate sightings.

Historically, we have experienced cases of mistaken identity, where reported drones are, in fact, manned aircraft or facilities. We are supporting local law enforcement in New Jersey with numerous detection methods but have not corroborated any of the reported visual sightings with electronic detection. To the contrary, upon review of available imagery, it appears that many of the reported sightings are actually manned aircraft, operating lawfully. There are no reported or confirmed drone sightings in any restricted air space. 

We take seriously the threat that can be posed by unmanned aircraft systems (UAS), which is why law enforcement and other agencies continue to support New Jersey and investigate the reports. To be clear, they have uncovered no such malicious activity or intent at this stage. While there is no known malicious activity occurring in New Jersey, the reported sightings there do, however, highlight the insufficiency of current authorities.”

Joint statement from FBI and DHS