South Fork Joins in Drone Mania

A smattering of social media reports from the South Fork have joined the wave of hysteria about remote-controlled drones sweeping some areas of the Northeast over the past week.

Local officials have said they are aware of the sudden sensitivity among some residents to lights in the sky at night and are keeping an eye out for reasons to be concerned. But they have said that, thus far, all of the reported “sightings” of drones in the region are of a wholly innocent nature.

“In light of the recent drone sightings throughout the East Coast, Suffolk County Executive Ed Romaine and the Suffolk County Police Department are working closely together along with our state and federal law enforcement partners to monitor the situation in real time,” said a statement from Romaine’s office on Monday.

Southampton Town Police said that they have received five calls from residents about drone sightings in the Westhampton area, all between December 12 and 17, but that responding officers saw no evidence of drones.

Westhampton Beach Village Police Chief Steven McManus said that, likewise, his department had received two reports from residents about drones swarming around Gabreski Airport, but that officers who followed up could not confirm the presence of any unauthorized flying objects.

Anyone who sees an object in the sky that they’re unsure about can check the website flightradar24.com, which will detail about actual airplanes flying overhead in real-time.

The drone-mania seems to have begun sometime last week with social media reports of groups of drones being seen in New Jersey, predictably sparking wholly unsubstantiated online conspiracy theories about the drones being Russian, Chinese, North Korean or even U.S. government spy devices. The public mania swelled from there — and may have inspired some drone owners to fan the flames.

On December 15, a single drone that was flown into the airspace of Stewart Airport in upstate New York spurred the closure of the airport’s runway for an hour and prompted Governor Kathy Hochul to demand that something be done to identify who is flying drones.

Even though the vast majority of the thousands of reported “sightings” of drones have been discounted by authorities to have been misplaced or mistaken, officials from as high up as the Department of Homeland Security, the U.S. Senate have been taking the public disquiet seriously and offering steps to help clarify what is flying where.

After New Jersey 911 call centers were inundated with calls about flying objects of inconsequential nature, the FBI set up a dedicated hotline to try and steer some of the public need to be heard about supposed drones from those trying to address actual emergencies. The hotline number is 1-800-Call-FBI.

Southampton Town Police Chief James Kiernan said that his department has been in contact with county state and federal law enforcement agencies who are working to quell the public distress over their newly heightened awareness of things in the sky. There has been nothing reported or documented anywhere in the country that would seem to justify the angst, or the conspiracy theories, he said.

“The information that has been reported to me is that [nothing has indicated that] operators conducting drone flights intend harm to the public or are individuals acting on behalf of a foreign power or a criminal organization,” Kiernan said.

Neither of the airports, in Westhampton nor East Hampton, have experienced any disruptions due to unauthorized drones being flown into their airspace, nor have they reported any unusual drone activity in their vicinity, officials said.

Drones, of course, are ubiquitous nationally, and on the South Fork — where a number of artists have used them to capture stunning images of marine life off local beaches. The Express News Group owns two; neither have been flown after dark recently.

MICHAEL WRIGHT