White House Says F.A.A. Authorized N.J. Drones: ‘This Was Not the Enemy’

The rash of reported drone sightings in New Jersey and surrounding states that drew widespread attention late last year were generated by legal drones that were flown with authorization by the Federal Aviation Administration, Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary, said Tuesday.

“This was not the enemy,” Ms. Leavitt said, speaking at her first news conference in her new role, reading a statement she said came from President Trump. In mid-November, residents in northern New Jersey began reporting flashing lights in the night sky that they believed were drones, hovering and zooming over towns and suburbs after sunset.

Soon after, the sightings began to capture the nation’s imagination. Thousands of people took to social media to trade videos of the aircraft and swap theories about what they were.

Some speculated that the aircraft were drones being operated by the U.S. government, while others suggested they could have been coming from other countries, perhaps to surveil infrastructure or military installations. One recent Emerson College poll of New Jersey residents found that 8.3 percent of them thought the airborne lights were actually “nonhuman intelligence.”

A New York Times investigation published last month that analyzed hundreds of videos purporting to show drone activity in New Jersey found none that conclusively showed drones. Most of the videos actually appeared to show commercial or military airplanes or helicopters, though drones in some cases remained a possible explanation.

Ms. Leavitt said Tuesday that “research and study” revealed many of the aircraft that had been spotted were actually drones flown for research purposes and by hobbyists and “private individuals that enjoy flying drones.”