- Title: 'Size of a school bus' - Witness describes flying object in New Jersey
- Date: 13th December 2024
- Summary: MONTCLAIR, NEW JERSEY, UNITED STATES (DECEMBER 12, 2024) (REUTERS) (SOUNDBITE) (English) EVAN CUTLER, EYE WITNESS WHO SAW LARGE UNIDENTIFIED OBJECT FLYING OVER RESIDENTIAL AREA, SAYING: "So the next morning I look up, who do I call? That's... the big mystery is when you see something and you don't know what it is, who do you call? Like, it's not like you go to the Yellow Pages and, like, UFO (Unidentified Flying Object) spottings, you know? It's like I had no idea who to call. But as a journalist, I do. All right. Probably the FAA (Federal Aviation Administration) would be the first choice. So I call the FAA, leave them a message. They still have not responded. I even call a second time two days later. Still no answer. Call the FBI (Federal Bureau of Investigation). Still no response. And in the meantime, I posted what happened. I posted my experience on Facebook. And then all of a sudden, like two days later, that's all you're hearing about are these drones." CUTLER SHOWING WHERE HE SAW FLYING OBJECT (SOUNDBITE) (English) EVAN CUTLER, EYE WITNESS WHO SAW LARGE UNIDENTIFIED OBJECT FLYING OVER RESIDENTIAL AREA, SAYING: "I never felt like this was a UFO. To me, my first thought was like, this is some sort of weird, like, military secret aircraft experiment kind of thing, like that was my first thought." CUTLER SHOWING WHERE HE SAW FLYING OBJECT CUTLER SHOWING HIS PICTURE OF FLYING OBJECT HE TOOK WITH HIS PHONE (SOUNDBITE) (English) EVAN CUTLER, EYE WITNESS WHO SAW LARGE UNIDENTIFIED OBJECT FLYING OVER RESIDENTIAL AREA, SAYING: "What do I think should happen? I would just like the government to be a little more open about what... what's going on here, because it's scary. You got stuff flying at night in the sky over, like, a very highly populated area. You want to at least have a little bit of, like, transparency and let us know that, you know, we have nothing to worry about because, like, people are actually starting to panic a little bit." WASHINGTON, D.C., UNITED STATES (DECEMBER 12, 2024) (REUTERS) (SOUNDBITE) (English) WHITE HOUSE NATIONAL SECURITY SPOKESPERSON, JOHN KIRBY, SAYING: "We have no evidence at this time that the reported drone sightings pose a national security or a public safety threat or have a foreign nexus." POMPTON PLAINS, NEW JERSEY, UNITED STATES (DECEMBER 12, 2024) (REUTERS) RYAN HERD, MAYOR OF PEQUANNOCK TOWNSHIP, SHOWING WHERE HE SAW OBJECTS FLYING OVER HOUSES (SOUNDBITE) (English) RYAN HERD, MAYOR OF PEQUANNOCK TOWNSHIP, WHO SAW DRONES FLYING OVER HIS TOWN, SAYING: "Drone sightings in New Jersey started around November 18th. A couple of Sundays ago, I actually went outside and I saw 60 specific drones around my township, which is the township of Pequannock. And this is an issue. And I started reaching out to our elected officials, and I wasn't getting any answers. Nobody knew anything." HERD SHOWING WHERE HE SAW OBJECTS FLYING (SOUNDBITE) (English) RYAN HERD, MAYOR OF PEQUANNOCK TOWNSHIP, WHO SAW DRONES FLYING OVER HIS TOWN, SAYING: "So, when I say drones, normal people are thinking about a drone, you know, about this big - size of their hands, something that smaller. The drones that I'm seeing are the smallest size. There's basically two different ones that I'm seeing. One is the size of roughly a suitcase. Something about this big. Another one is the size of an SUV. This thing is huge and it sounds like a small jet. It is massive and it looks like a plane." VARIOUS OF AREA WHERE HERD SAW OBJECTS FLYING (SOUNDBITE) (English) RYAN HERD, MAYOR OF PEQUANNOCK TOWNSHIP, WHO SAW DRONES FLYING OVER HIS TOWN, SAYING: "They're (Herd's constituents) concerned, you know, because here's the problem. Somebody sees drones. That's one thing. But now you see drones coming back night after night after night. That's another. And then you see the drones literally over your house. Now we're talking about an invasion of privacy. And now because of what's going on in today's day and age, with everything with media, whether it's X or YouTube or regular media out there, people see what's going on in the world - whether it's Syria, whether it's Ukraine, they see things being dropped from drones. So my constituents absolutely, you know, there's an issue there. They have questions. Those questions need to be answered." VARIOUS OF AREA WHERE HERD SAW OBJECTS FLYING (SOUNDBITE) (English) RYAN HERD, MAYOR OF PEQUANNOCK TOWNSHIP, WHO SAW DRONES FLYING OVER HIS TOWN, SAYING: "You know, it's either friendly or foe. That's what it comes down to. And in either case, the question is 'why?' You know, I don't want to think conspiracy. I don't want to think nefarious. But unfortunately, I think we have a responsibility to think that way, so we're ahead of anything bad that could possibly happen." NEIGHBORHOOD WHERE HERD SAW OBJECTS FLYING (SOUNDBITE) (English) RYAN HERD, MAYOR OF PEQUANNOCK TOWNSHIP, WHO SAW DRONES FLYING OVER HIS TOWN, SAYING: "I need answers. The number one thing is I need answers. You know, yesterday we had a meeting that was supposed to be with the governor and all the mayors of New Jersey. Now, New Jersey has 565 townships or municipalities. There is about 180 mayors there, which is huge. That was a great showing. Unfortunately, our governor was not there. That was very disrespectful. This is something that - you have drones. You have an invasion coming into this day in New Jersey, hundreds or thousands of them all over everybody's houses. Only about 200ft high. This is priority. It needs to be made priority. We need to find out what's going on, now. And I demand answers. NEIGHBORHOOD WHERE HERD SAW OBJECTS FLYING
- Embargoed: 27th December 2024 16:03
- Keywords: 49 reported sightings Garden State drones mysterious drones
- Location: VARIOUS
- City: VARIOUS
- Country: US
- Topics: Disaster/Accidents,North America
- Reuters ID: LVA00C685112122024RP1
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: PROFANITY IN BACKGROUND VOICE IN SHOT # 2
FOR FULL WHITE HOUSE REACTION, PLEASE SEE EDIT 6853-USA-NEW JERSEY/DRONES
FOR PENTAGON REACTION, PLEASE SEE EDIT 6525-USA-DRONES/PENTAGON
Evan Cutler was on his way home from work recently, very late at night, when he saw something that looked like a full moon, except he knew it was about two weeks too late to see the natural phenomenon.
He stopped his car at the crossing of Hebron Road and Grove Street in Montclair, New Jersey, and looked at what he thought was something of the size of a school bus hovering 150ft over a tree line.
"I'm the president of Montclair Bird Club, I know how to look in the sky," Cutler said. "I know how to identify things. So to me, it's not like I'm this, like, amateur skygazer. This was like... I right away knew this was something unusual. Very unusual."
Since roughly the middle of November, residents of New Jersey have spotted large and medium-sized objects flying around their neighborhoods. Some were also spotted in Virginia, Pennsylvania, and Staten Island.
"You know, it's either friendly or foe. That's what it comes down to," said Ryan Herd, the mayor of Pequannock Township in New Jersey, who saw 60 objects flying around his township.
"You know, I don't want to think conspiracy. I don't want to think nefarious. But unfortunately, I think we have a responsibility to think that way. So we're ahead of anything bad that could possibly happen," said Herd.
The Pentagon said on Wednesday (December 11) that there was no evidence that drones that had been spotted over New Jersey were from a foreign entity or adversary. The White House said on Thursday (December 12) they are investigating the issue.
(Production: Hussein Al Waaile, Aleksandra Michalska, Inaki Malvido) - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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