October 23, 2025 • 21 mins
A casual admission at an Army summit may have finally solved one of 2024's strangest mysteries… or maybe not.
READ or SHARE: https://weirddarkness.com/military-contractor-admits-nj-ufo-panic/
Support our Halloween “Overcoming the Darkness” campaign to help people with depression: https://weirddarkness.com/HOPE
WeirdDarkness® is a registered trademark. Copyright ©2025, Weird Darkness.
#WeirdDarkness #NewJerseyDrones #UFOSightings #DroneMystery #MilitaryConspiracy #UnexplainedPhenomena #GovernmentSecrets #ClassifiedTechnology #TrueStory #UAP
READ or SHARE: https://weirddarkness.com/military-contractor-admits-nj-ufo-panic/
Support our Halloween “Overcoming the Darkness” campaign to help people with depression: https://weirddarkness.com/HOPE
WeirdDarkness® is a registered trademark. Copyright ©2025, Weird Darkness.
#WeirdDarkness #NewJerseyDrones #UFOSightings #DroneMystery #MilitaryConspiracy #UnexplainedPhenomena #GovernmentSecrets #ClassifiedTechnology #TrueStory #UAP
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:11):
I'm Darren Marler, and this is weird dark news. Something
strange began appearing in New Jersey's night skies in November
of twenty twenty four, and nobody seemed to know what
it was, not the FBI, not Homeland Security, not even
the governor. For weeks, residents across the state stood in
their yards at dusk watching unusual aircraft hovering overhead, their
(00:35):
bizarre flight patterns defying easy explanation. The objects moved in
ways that didn't quite make sense. They appeared, they hovered,
and sometimes they simply vanished. The mystery would consume the
nation's attention, spawned countless conspiracy theories about everything from foreign
adversaries to extraterrestrial visitors, and leave officials scrambling for answers.
(00:57):
They either couldn't or wouldn't provide the truth when it
finally emerged at a military summit nine months later, would
prove almost as strange as the speculation. The first confirmed
sighting happened November thirteenth, twenty twenty four, at a place
that should have been one of the most secure locations
in the state. Picatinny Arsenal in Morris County serves as
(01:19):
a US military research facility, the kind of place where
security personnel know the difference between a hobby drone and
something unusual. That day, a contractor working at the arsenal
reported something odd. They watched a light rising straight from
the tree line, moving directly toward the arsenal itself. The
way it moved wasn't quite right. Within days, the sightings multiplied.
(01:42):
Dozens of drones were being spotted at night, flying across
at least ten different counties throughout the state. These weren't
appearing in remote areas where someone might be testing equipment
away from prying eyes. The drones showed up above critical infrastructure.
Residents looked up to see them hovering over reservoirs that
supply their drinking water. The objects appeared above electric transmission lines,
(02:04):
rail stations, police departments, and military installations. Many of them
appeared to be larger than the drones hobbyists typically fly,
the kind you might see at a park on a
weekend afternoon. The reports kept coming in. By mid December,
the state's Office of Emergency Management had logged nine hundred
and sixty four sidings of flying objects between November nineteenth
(02:24):
and December thirteenth, it's an average of nearly forty sidings
per day for nearly a month. The pattern of sidings
told its own story. At first, the aircraft respotted flying
along the Raritan River, Then the sidings spread nationwide. They
appeared near President elect Donald Trump's golf course in Bedminster,
which prompted its own set of security concerns. In mine Hill,
(02:46):
Mayor Sam Morris grew frustrated with federal officials who seemed
skeptical about what residents were reporting. He issued a challenge
to anyone who doubted the frequency of the sidings come
to his town at night. He said, stand behind the
town hall around nine third your ten pm. Count them
yourself all night long if you need to. The federal
government's handling of the situation only deepened the public's suspicion.
(03:09):
When people want answers and officials speak in carefully measured
tones that seemed to say everything and nothing wants, trust
erodes Quickly. White House National Security spokesman John Kirby addressed
the situation publicly. He confirmed that the aircraft were not
foreign The agencies had found no evidence that the reported
drone sidings posed a national security threat or a public
(03:31):
safety threat. Then came the part that frustrated many people.
Kirby stated that upon review of available imagery, many of
the reported sightings appear to be manned aircraft being operated lawfully.
Many not all. The distinction mattered to people who knew
what they had seen. The FBI took the lead on
the investigation, working alongside New Jersey State Police and the
(03:54):
Office of Homeland Security and Preparedness. The US Coast Guard
assessed jurisdictional responses, trying to determine who had authority to
do what in different airspaces. Federal agencies made a point
of ruling out any connections to local, state, or federal governments.
If these were government drones, officials insisted they weren't ours.
(04:15):
The Federal Aviation Administration began issuing temporary flight restrictions. On
November twenty second, twenty twenty four. They imposed a two
week restriction over Trump's Bedminster Golf Club. Days later came
a month long restriction over Picatinny Arsenal, where the whole
thing had started. Then, on December eighteenth, the FAA issued
a one month ban on drone operations near twenty two
(04:35):
cities in New Jersey, including Camden, elizabeth and Jersey City.
The government's messaging created confusion. On December seventeenth, then President
Joe Biden told the public there was nothing nefarious in
the sky. The same day, members of Congress came out
of a classified briefing and told reporters that the alleged
drone sidings posed no threat to the public. Then, just
(04:56):
one day later, on December eighteenth, the FAA imposed large
flight restrictions backed by deadly Force over New Jersey. People
noticed the contradiction. If there is no threat, why flight restrictions,
why deadly force? The government worked behind the scenes to
debunk some of the most alarming reports, though they didn't
share these findings with the public immediately. The day before
(05:19):
the FAA imposed these new fly zones, officials had already
identified several sightings as conventional aircraft. They didn't tell anyone yet.
Take the December twelfth siding near the Salem Nuclear Power
Plant along the Delaware River. Multiple people reported drones near
the facility, which naturally raised concerns about security at a
nuclear site. Federal investigators looked into it and discovered the
(05:43):
timing lined up perfectly with a military UH sixty Blackhawk
helicopter flyover. A civilian CESNASE one fifty propeller plane was
in the area at the same time, so were commercial
flights coming out of Philadelphia. The drones people saw near
the nuclear plant were almost certainly these conventions an aircraft.
That same day, residents in Clinton, New Jersey reported something
(06:04):
more disturbing. A drone appeared to be spraying gray mists
over the town. The image this conjured was unsettling. What
could it be spraying why? The Transportation Security Administration investigated
and identified the object with high confidence. It was a
Beachcraft Barren fifty eight propeller plane getting tossed around by turbulence,
(06:24):
which caused swirly condensation clouds to form on the wingtip vortices.
These vortices looked like mist being sprayed from the aircraft.
Clinton Township Police Chief Thomas ada Rosa informed the public
about these findings, but not until December thirty first, more
than two weeks after the sighting. Throughout December twenty twenty four,
local citizens, police departments, and even a Coastguard crew kept
(06:48):
reporting nightly swarms of drones over the ocean near a
National Guard training facility on the Jersey shore. The reports
were consistent, multiple objects every night moving formation over the water.
The White House eventually reached a conclusion about these sightings too.
The Coastguard crew had been watching passenger jets on their
approach to John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York.
(07:12):
The explanation made sense once you understood what was happening.
Airplanes landing at JFK were making a large S shaped
maneuver over the ocean as they lined up for the runway.
During these maneuvers, the aircraft would appear to almost hover
in the sky as they flew toward land, then turned
away from it, then came back around from the ground
(07:32):
or from a ship at sea. These turning aircraft could
easily be mistaken from multiple drones hovering information in Peckinock Township,
something did crash. Initial reports described it as a military
grade drone. Police investigated and determined it was a toy drone.
Officials suggested it was one of multiple copycat incidents in
the area. People were launching their own drones, either to
(07:55):
join the mystery or to see what would happen. Months later,
in the first press breezing of President Donald Trump's second administration,
White House Press Secretary Caroline Levitt provided an official explanation.
The drones that had been flown across New Jersey in
late twenty twenty four were authorized to be flown by
the FAA for research and various other reasons. Many of
(08:16):
them were also hobbyists, recreational operators, and private individuals who
enjoy flying drones. In time, she added, it got worse
due to curiosity. People saw drones in the news and
went out with their own drones to see what the
fuss was about. Multiplying the number of objects in the
sky then came August twenty twenty five, nine months after
(08:37):
the sightings began, the Army held its Unmanned Aircraft Systems
and launched Effect's Summit at Fort Rucker, Alabama, from August
eleventh through August fifteenth. The event brought together senior Army leaders, soldiers,
and industry representatives to discuss the future of unmanned aerial
systems and the policy changes that would allow faster acquisition
and deployment of drones to military units. That's happened regularly
(09:01):
filled with technical presentations, policy discussions, and demonstrations of new technology.
Most of what happens at these events stays within military
and defense contractor circles, But during this particular summit, something
unexpected happened, something that would eventually make its way to
the press and offer at least a partial answer to
what happened over New Jersey. An employee of an unnamed
(09:24):
private contractor stood before a crowd and made a statement
that must have caused a stir. According to The New
York Post, which spoke to an attendee, the employee said,
you remember that big UFO scare in New Jersey last year, Well,
that was us. The source of the summit provided more
details about what the contractor's employee claimed. The company had
(09:44):
launched the objects people saw over New Jersey to test
out their capabilities. They were conducting tests seeing what their
technology could do in a real world environment with actual
population centers and existing air traffic. As for why they
hadn't told anybody, the employee had an answer for that too.
There was no need to disclose their work to the
public because they operated under a private government contract. The
(10:08):
company didn't just talk about what they had done. They
offered a live demonstration of their manned aerial craft right
there at Fort Rucker. The aircraft had an unconventional appearance,
something that became clear as it flew above the base
in controlled airspace. A military veteran and drone expert witnessed
the demonstration and later described the experience. The aircraft measured
(10:29):
roughly twenty feet across and had what appeared to be
four wings. It flew silently, staying just above the tree
line for about thirty minutes. The source tried to put
into words what made the experience so unsettling. It felt
like watching a UFO, they said, because it defied what
you expected to see. There was an uncanny valley feeling
while watching it quietly move through the sky, that sense
(10:51):
of something being almost right but not quite, triggering an
instinctive unease. Then came the detail that explained so much
the New Jersey sidings. The source described what happened when
the aircraft changed direction. When it turned, you almost completely
lost sight of it, they explained, which is why I
think people were seeing this up in the sky and
(11:12):
why there were reports of people seeing it and saying
it disappeared. That aligned perfectly with what had been reported
in New Jersey. In a thirteen second clip posted to
social media in November twenty twenty four, filmed near Atlantic City,
a white light blinked in the sky before suddenly vanishing,
leaving onlookers stunned. In the footage, family members discussed what
(11:32):
they were witnessing. Then the object simply disappeared. It just vanished.
One said, I just watched it through the telescope. The
Fort Rucker demonstration suggested they had not been watching something
vanish into thin air. They'd been watching an aircraft turn
at an angle then made it nearly invisible from the ground.
Aviation experts and journalists began analyzing the aircraft shown at
(11:54):
Fort Rucker, comparing photos from the summit with known aircraft designs.
They reached a conclusion the aircraft wasn't some classified prototype
or unknown military project. It was The Pivotal Blackfly, a
single seat electric vertical takeoff and landing vehicle has been
in limited public display for several years. The Pivotal black
Fly is an American electric powered VTOL personal air vehicle
(12:17):
designed by Canadian engineer Marcus Lang. The company that produces
it was formerly called Opener, but it's now known as Pivotal.
The construction reveals sophisticated engineering. The Blackfly is made from
carbon fiber reinforced epoxy with all electric battery powered propulsion.
It has two cantilevered tandem wings, each measuring thirteen point
(12:37):
six feet across. One wing sits at the front of
a short fuselage, the other at the rear. Each wing
carries four tractor configuration contra rotating propellers, all powered by
electric motors. The way it flies sets it apart from
other designs. The aircraft isn't a tilt wing or tilta
rotor design like some other VTOL craft. Instead, the entire
(12:58):
aircraft changes its pitch to fly in two different modes.
In hover mode, the aircraft pitches roughly vertically and maintains
its position and altitude by default. In cruise mode, the
aircraft pitches roughly horizontally and maintains straight and level flight
by default. The design details help explain what people saw
in New Jersey. Observers at Fort Rucker who described a
(13:21):
four winged aircraft were likely seeing the two overlapping tandem
wings as four separate surfaces, explaining the four winged description
in reports. It's an easy mistake to make, especially at
night or when the aircraft is moving at odd angles.
The aircraft's color scheme also matched Pivotal's current livery shown
in recent company promotional materials a matt tan upper surface
(13:44):
with black accents. In certain light conditions or at certain angles,
those colors could make the aircraft harder to see against
the sky. By October twenty four, Pivotal had completed delivery
of thirteen Blackfly aircraft to customers across the country. The
prototypes were being flown by private owners and by the
US Air Force across numerous states, including California, Delaware, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Ohio, Oregon, Texas,
(14:09):
and Washington. The identification of the aircraft as a Pivotal
black Fly seemed to solve the mystery. An unnamed contractor
had admitted at Fort Rucker that their company was responsible
for the New Jersey sidings. The aircraft matched the black Fly.
The explanation appeared complete, not quite. Spokesperson for Pivotal confirmed
(14:30):
that the company had conducted demonstration flights at Fort Rucker, Alabama,
in August twenty twenty five, so far that aligned with
the reports. Then came the denial. The company firmly stated
that it had no involvement whatsoever in the New Jersey sidings.
Pivotal emphasized that it has not flown in New Jersey
and was not involved in the twenty twenty four sidings
(14:51):
reported there. They were being coy or evasive about it.
The denial was direct and unambiguous. The spokesperson explained why
night time flights over populated areas in New Jersey would
have been problematic for their company. Pivotals, eVTOLs or eve
tolls operate under FAA Part one oh three, which comes
with specific restrictions. The aircraft can only fly in rural airspace.
(15:15):
They can only operate during daylight or civil twilight hours.
This would make nighttime operations over New Jersey technically prohibited
for standard Pivotal operations. The company would have been breaking
federal regulations if they'd flown their aircraft the way residents
describe seeing them. So where does that leave the contractors claim?
At Fort Rucker, the claim that a company flew over
(15:37):
New Jersey in November twenty twenty four under a private
government contract has not been substantiated. In fact, it's directly
contradicted by Pivotal, the company that manufactures the aircraft that
was demonstrated at the summit. The New Jersey sightings didn't
happen in isolation. They were part of a much larger
pattern of drone activity that's been troubling military officials for months.
(16:00):
In February twenty twenty five, General Gregory Gello appeared before
the Senate Armed Services Committee. GEO, who had both NORAD
and northcomb, shared some concerning statistics with the senators. During
twenty twenty four, there had been three hundred and fifty
drone incursions reported over one hundred US military bases. That's
an average of more than three and a half incursions
(16:21):
per base over the course of the year. GEO emphasized
the surveillance risks these incidents posed and advocated for expanded
counter drone authority for military installations. The military needed more
legal power to deal with unauthorized drones, he argued, because
the existing tools weren't adequate. The problem extended beyond American borders.
(16:42):
In November twenty twenty four, the same month the New
Jersey sidings began, unidentified drones were reported flying over US
bases in the United Kingdom. In December twenty twenty four,
similar sightings occurred over Ramsden Air Base in Germany and
over arms factories in that country as well. Some analysts
had addicted something like the New Jersey situation would happen eventually.
(17:03):
Former CIA operations officer Laura Baalman shared her theory about
the drones during the height of the sidings. She told
Fox News that the drone activity was extremely unsettling, but
she suspected they might be part of a technology test
orchestrated by the federal government. Ballman pointed to specific evidence
that supported her theory. John Kirby, the White House National
(17:24):
Security spokesman, had stated that the objects were not operating illegally.
At the same time, multiple opinion pieces had appeared in
major publications discussing the need to examine and upgrade the
nation's detection systems. Ballman thought perhaps the government was conducting
a classified exercise to test either evasion technology or detection
technology in urban areas. What better way to test whether
(17:48):
your detection systems work than to fly objects over populated
areas and see if anyone can figure out what they are.
The story does not have a clean ending. Instead, it
leaves us with a tang of contradictions and unanswered questions
that point to something more complex than a simple case
of misidentified aircraft. Start with the most basic question. If
(18:09):
the aircraft demonstrated at Fort Rucker was a Pivotal blackfly,
and Pivotal firmly denies flying in New Jersey, then who
was actually operating similar craft over the Garden State. The
contractor's employee said it was their company. Was that claim
accurate or was it misinformation? If it was accurate, does
that mean someone else has access to blackfly aircraft or
(18:30):
similar technology? The US Air Force has blackfly aircraft. Could
it have been a military operation after all, despite official denials,
Consider the possibility that it wasn't a blackfly at all,
but something that looked similar. The defense contracting world is
full of competing technologies and parallel development. Maybe another company
(18:50):
has created an EVE tool with a similar design and
flight characteristics. Maybe that company really did conduct tests over
New Jersey under a private government contract, as the Fort
Rucker employee claimed. The federal government's handling of the entire
situation raises its own set of questions. Officials simultaneously assured
the public there was no threat while imposing flight restrictions
(19:13):
backed by deadly force. They identified many sightings as conventional aircraft,
but declined to explain others. They insisted on transparency while
withholding critical information that was only revealed months later through
internal documents obtained by journalists and researchers. By Christmas Eve
twenty twenty four, the reports in northern New Jersey had
(19:33):
slowed to a trickle. The phenomenon that had consumed news
cycles and dominated social media for weeks faded. The social
media attention given the mysterious object had all but ended
by the beginning of twenty twenty five. People moved on
to other concerns, other mysteries, other news cycles. The drone
panic of twenty twenty four revealed something troubling about the
(19:54):
intersection of rapidly advancing technology, government secrecy that may or
may not be justified, and a public increasingly skeptical of
official explanations. Whether the objects over New Jersey were classified
military tests, commercial demonstrations that went sideways, or a cascade
of misidentifications amplified by social media and mass psychology. The
(20:16):
federal government's refusal to provide clear and consistent information created
a vacuum. That vacuum got filled by speculation, conspiracy theories,
and fear. The residents who stood in their yards watching
unusual aircraft hover over their communities for weeks deserved better
answers than they received. The local officials who fielded concerned
(20:36):
calls from constituents deserved better information from federal agencies. The truth,
whatever it is, should have been provided clearly and promptly,
not doled out in pieces months later or left for
journalists to uncover through document requests. They all still deserved
those answers. The mystery may have faded from the headlines,
(20:57):
but the questions still remain. If you'd like to read
this story for yourself or share the article with a friend,
you can read it on the Weird Darkness website. I've
placed a link to it in the episode description, and
you can find more stories of the paranormal, true crime, strange,
and more, including numerous stories that never make it to
the podcast, at Weirddarkness dot com slash news
I'm Darren Marler, and this is weird dark news. Something
strange began appearing in New Jersey's night skies in November
of twenty twenty four, and nobody seemed to know what
it was, not the FBI, not Homeland Security, not even
the governor. For weeks, residents across the state stood in
their yards at dusk watching unusual aircraft hovering overhead, their
(00:35):
bizarre flight patterns defying easy explanation. The objects moved in
ways that didn't quite make sense. They appeared, they hovered,
and sometimes they simply vanished. The mystery would consume the
nation's attention, spawned countless conspiracy theories about everything from foreign
adversaries to extraterrestrial visitors, and leave officials scrambling for answers.
(00:57):
They either couldn't or wouldn't provide the truth when it
finally emerged at a military summit nine months later, would
prove almost as strange as the speculation. The first confirmed
sighting happened November thirteenth, twenty twenty four, at a place
that should have been one of the most secure locations
in the state. Picatinny Arsenal in Morris County serves as
(01:19):
a US military research facility, the kind of place where
security personnel know the difference between a hobby drone and
something unusual. That day, a contractor working at the arsenal
reported something odd. They watched a light rising straight from
the tree line, moving directly toward the arsenal itself. The
way it moved wasn't quite right. Within days, the sightings multiplied.
(01:42):
Dozens of drones were being spotted at night, flying across
at least ten different counties throughout the state. These weren't
appearing in remote areas where someone might be testing equipment
away from prying eyes. The drones showed up above critical infrastructure.
Residents looked up to see them hovering over reservoirs that
supply their drinking water. The objects appeared above electric transmission lines,
(02:04):
rail stations, police departments, and military installations. Many of them
appeared to be larger than the drones hobbyists typically fly,
the kind you might see at a park on a
weekend afternoon. The reports kept coming in. By mid December,
the state's Office of Emergency Management had logged nine hundred
and sixty four sidings of flying objects between November nineteenth
(02:24):
and December thirteenth, it's an average of nearly forty sidings
per day for nearly a month. The pattern of sidings
told its own story. At first, the aircraft respotted flying
along the Raritan River, Then the sidings spread nationwide. They
appeared near President elect Donald Trump's golf course in Bedminster,
which prompted its own set of security concerns. In mine Hill,
(02:46):
Mayor Sam Morris grew frustrated with federal officials who seemed
skeptical about what residents were reporting. He issued a challenge
to anyone who doubted the frequency of the sidings come
to his town at night. He said, stand behind the
town hall around nine third your ten pm. Count them
yourself all night long if you need to. The federal
government's handling of the situation only deepened the public's suspicion.
(03:09):
When people want answers and officials speak in carefully measured
tones that seemed to say everything and nothing wants, trust
erodes Quickly. White House National Security spokesman John Kirby addressed
the situation publicly. He confirmed that the aircraft were not
foreign The agencies had found no evidence that the reported
drone sidings posed a national security threat or a public
(03:31):
safety threat. Then came the part that frustrated many people.
Kirby stated that upon review of available imagery, many of
the reported sightings appear to be manned aircraft being operated lawfully.
Many not all. The distinction mattered to people who knew
what they had seen. The FBI took the lead on
the investigation, working alongside New Jersey State Police and the
(03:54):
Office of Homeland Security and Preparedness. The US Coast Guard
assessed jurisdictional responses, trying to determine who had authority to
do what in different airspaces. Federal agencies made a point
of ruling out any connections to local, state, or federal governments.
If these were government drones, officials insisted they weren't ours.
(04:15):
The Federal Aviation Administration began issuing temporary flight restrictions. On
November twenty second, twenty twenty four. They imposed a two
week restriction over Trump's Bedminster Golf Club. Days later came
a month long restriction over Picatinny Arsenal, where the whole
thing had started. Then, on December eighteenth, the FAA issued
a one month ban on drone operations near twenty two
(04:35):
cities in New Jersey, including Camden, elizabeth and Jersey City.
The government's messaging created confusion. On December seventeenth, then President
Joe Biden told the public there was nothing nefarious in
the sky. The same day, members of Congress came out
of a classified briefing and told reporters that the alleged
drone sidings posed no threat to the public. Then, just
(04:56):
one day later, on December eighteenth, the FAA imposed large
flight restrictions backed by deadly Force over New Jersey. People
noticed the contradiction. If there is no threat, why flight restrictions,
why deadly force? The government worked behind the scenes to
debunk some of the most alarming reports, though they didn't
share these findings with the public immediately. The day before
(05:19):
the FAA imposed these new fly zones, officials had already
identified several sightings as conventional aircraft. They didn't tell anyone yet.
Take the December twelfth siding near the Salem Nuclear Power
Plant along the Delaware River. Multiple people reported drones near
the facility, which naturally raised concerns about security at a
nuclear site. Federal investigators looked into it and discovered the
(05:43):
timing lined up perfectly with a military UH sixty Blackhawk
helicopter flyover. A civilian CESNASE one fifty propeller plane was
in the area at the same time, so were commercial
flights coming out of Philadelphia. The drones people saw near
the nuclear plant were almost certainly these conventions an aircraft.
That same day, residents in Clinton, New Jersey reported something
(06:04):
more disturbing. A drone appeared to be spraying gray mists
over the town. The image this conjured was unsettling. What
could it be spraying why? The Transportation Security Administration investigated
and identified the object with high confidence. It was a
Beachcraft Barren fifty eight propeller plane getting tossed around by turbulence,
(06:24):
which caused swirly condensation clouds to form on the wingtip vortices.
These vortices looked like mist being sprayed from the aircraft.
Clinton Township Police Chief Thomas ada Rosa informed the public
about these findings, but not until December thirty first, more
than two weeks after the sighting. Throughout December twenty twenty four,
local citizens, police departments, and even a Coastguard crew kept
(06:48):
reporting nightly swarms of drones over the ocean near a
National Guard training facility on the Jersey shore. The reports
were consistent, multiple objects every night moving formation over the water.
The White House eventually reached a conclusion about these sightings too.
The Coastguard crew had been watching passenger jets on their
approach to John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York.
(07:12):
The explanation made sense once you understood what was happening.
Airplanes landing at JFK were making a large S shaped
maneuver over the ocean as they lined up for the runway.
During these maneuvers, the aircraft would appear to almost hover
in the sky as they flew toward land, then turned
away from it, then came back around from the ground
(07:32):
or from a ship at sea. These turning aircraft could
easily be mistaken from multiple drones hovering information in Peckinock Township,
something did crash. Initial reports described it as a military
grade drone. Police investigated and determined it was a toy drone.
Officials suggested it was one of multiple copycat incidents in
the area. People were launching their own drones, either to
(07:55):
join the mystery or to see what would happen. Months later,
in the first press breezing of President Donald Trump's second administration,
White House Press Secretary Caroline Levitt provided an official explanation.
The drones that had been flown across New Jersey in
late twenty twenty four were authorized to be flown by
the FAA for research and various other reasons. Many of
(08:16):
them were also hobbyists, recreational operators, and private individuals who
enjoy flying drones. In time, she added, it got worse
due to curiosity. People saw drones in the news and
went out with their own drones to see what the
fuss was about. Multiplying the number of objects in the
sky then came August twenty twenty five, nine months after
(08:37):
the sightings began, the Army held its Unmanned Aircraft Systems
and launched Effect's Summit at Fort Rucker, Alabama, from August
eleventh through August fifteenth. The event brought together senior Army leaders, soldiers,
and industry representatives to discuss the future of unmanned aerial
systems and the policy changes that would allow faster acquisition
and deployment of drones to military units. That's happened regularly
(09:01):
filled with technical presentations, policy discussions, and demonstrations of new technology.
Most of what happens at these events stays within military
and defense contractor circles, But during this particular summit, something
unexpected happened, something that would eventually make its way to
the press and offer at least a partial answer to
what happened over New Jersey. An employee of an unnamed
(09:24):
private contractor stood before a crowd and made a statement
that must have caused a stir. According to The New
York Post, which spoke to an attendee, the employee said,
you remember that big UFO scare in New Jersey last year, Well,
that was us. The source of the summit provided more
details about what the contractor's employee claimed. The company had
(09:44):
launched the objects people saw over New Jersey to test
out their capabilities. They were conducting tests seeing what their
technology could do in a real world environment with actual
population centers and existing air traffic. As for why they
hadn't told anybody, the employee had an answer for that too.
There was no need to disclose their work to the
public because they operated under a private government contract. The
(10:08):
company didn't just talk about what they had done. They
offered a live demonstration of their manned aerial craft right
there at Fort Rucker. The aircraft had an unconventional appearance,
something that became clear as it flew above the base
in controlled airspace. A military veteran and drone expert witnessed
the demonstration and later described the experience. The aircraft measured
(10:29):
roughly twenty feet across and had what appeared to be
four wings. It flew silently, staying just above the tree
line for about thirty minutes. The source tried to put
into words what made the experience so unsettling. It felt
like watching a UFO, they said, because it defied what
you expected to see. There was an uncanny valley feeling
while watching it quietly move through the sky, that sense
(10:51):
of something being almost right but not quite, triggering an
instinctive unease. Then came the detail that explained so much
the New Jersey sidings. The source described what happened when
the aircraft changed direction. When it turned, you almost completely
lost sight of it, they explained, which is why I
think people were seeing this up in the sky and
(11:12):
why there were reports of people seeing it and saying
it disappeared. That aligned perfectly with what had been reported
in New Jersey. In a thirteen second clip posted to
social media in November twenty twenty four, filmed near Atlantic City,
a white light blinked in the sky before suddenly vanishing,
leaving onlookers stunned. In the footage, family members discussed what
(11:32):
they were witnessing. Then the object simply disappeared. It just vanished.
One said, I just watched it through the telescope. The
Fort Rucker demonstration suggested they had not been watching something
vanish into thin air. They'd been watching an aircraft turn
at an angle then made it nearly invisible from the ground.
Aviation experts and journalists began analyzing the aircraft shown at
(11:54):
Fort Rucker, comparing photos from the summit with known aircraft designs.
They reached a conclusion the aircraft wasn't some classified prototype
or unknown military project. It was The Pivotal Blackfly, a
single seat electric vertical takeoff and landing vehicle has been
in limited public display for several years. The Pivotal black
Fly is an American electric powered VTOL personal air vehicle
(12:17):
designed by Canadian engineer Marcus Lang. The company that produces
it was formerly called Opener, but it's now known as Pivotal.
The construction reveals sophisticated engineering. The Blackfly is made from
carbon fiber reinforced epoxy with all electric battery powered propulsion.
It has two cantilevered tandem wings, each measuring thirteen point
(12:37):
six feet across. One wing sits at the front of
a short fuselage, the other at the rear. Each wing
carries four tractor configuration contra rotating propellers, all powered by
electric motors. The way it flies sets it apart from
other designs. The aircraft isn't a tilt wing or tilta
rotor design like some other VTOL craft. Instead, the entire
(12:58):
aircraft changes its pitch to fly in two different modes.
In hover mode, the aircraft pitches roughly vertically and maintains
its position and altitude by default. In cruise mode, the
aircraft pitches roughly horizontally and maintains straight and level flight
by default. The design details help explain what people saw
in New Jersey. Observers at Fort Rucker who described a
(13:21):
four winged aircraft were likely seeing the two overlapping tandem
wings as four separate surfaces, explaining the four winged description
in reports. It's an easy mistake to make, especially at
night or when the aircraft is moving at odd angles.
The aircraft's color scheme also matched Pivotal's current livery shown
in recent company promotional materials a matt tan upper surface
(13:44):
with black accents. In certain light conditions or at certain angles,
those colors could make the aircraft harder to see against
the sky. By October twenty four, Pivotal had completed delivery
of thirteen Blackfly aircraft to customers across the country. The
prototypes were being flown by private owners and by the
US Air Force across numerous states, including California, Delaware, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Ohio, Oregon, Texas,
(14:09):
and Washington. The identification of the aircraft as a Pivotal
black Fly seemed to solve the mystery. An unnamed contractor
had admitted at Fort Rucker that their company was responsible
for the New Jersey sidings. The aircraft matched the black Fly.
The explanation appeared complete, not quite. Spokesperson for Pivotal confirmed
(14:30):
that the company had conducted demonstration flights at Fort Rucker, Alabama,
in August twenty twenty five, so far that aligned with
the reports. Then came the denial. The company firmly stated
that it had no involvement whatsoever in the New Jersey sidings.
Pivotal emphasized that it has not flown in New Jersey
and was not involved in the twenty twenty four sidings
(14:51):
reported there. They were being coy or evasive about it.
The denial was direct and unambiguous. The spokesperson explained why
night time flights over populated areas in New Jersey would
have been problematic for their company. Pivotals, eVTOLs or eve
tolls operate under FAA Part one oh three, which comes
with specific restrictions. The aircraft can only fly in rural airspace.
(15:15):
They can only operate during daylight or civil twilight hours.
This would make nighttime operations over New Jersey technically prohibited
for standard Pivotal operations. The company would have been breaking
federal regulations if they'd flown their aircraft the way residents
describe seeing them. So where does that leave the contractors claim?
At Fort Rucker, the claim that a company flew over
(15:37):
New Jersey in November twenty twenty four under a private
government contract has not been substantiated. In fact, it's directly
contradicted by Pivotal, the company that manufactures the aircraft that
was demonstrated at the summit. The New Jersey sightings didn't
happen in isolation. They were part of a much larger
pattern of drone activity that's been troubling military officials for months.
(16:00):
In February twenty twenty five, General Gregory Gello appeared before
the Senate Armed Services Committee. GEO, who had both NORAD
and northcomb, shared some concerning statistics with the senators. During
twenty twenty four, there had been three hundred and fifty
drone incursions reported over one hundred US military bases. That's
an average of more than three and a half incursions
(16:21):
per base over the course of the year. GEO emphasized
the surveillance risks these incidents posed and advocated for expanded
counter drone authority for military installations. The military needed more
legal power to deal with unauthorized drones, he argued, because
the existing tools weren't adequate. The problem extended beyond American borders.
(16:42):
In November twenty twenty four, the same month the New
Jersey sidings began, unidentified drones were reported flying over US
bases in the United Kingdom. In December twenty twenty four,
similar sightings occurred over Ramsden Air Base in Germany and
over arms factories in that country as well. Some analysts
had addicted something like the New Jersey situation would happen eventually.
(17:03):
Former CIA operations officer Laura Baalman shared her theory about
the drones during the height of the sidings. She told
Fox News that the drone activity was extremely unsettling, but
she suspected they might be part of a technology test
orchestrated by the federal government. Ballman pointed to specific evidence
that supported her theory. John Kirby, the White House National
(17:24):
Security spokesman, had stated that the objects were not operating illegally.
At the same time, multiple opinion pieces had appeared in
major publications discussing the need to examine and upgrade the
nation's detection systems. Ballman thought perhaps the government was conducting
a classified exercise to test either evasion technology or detection
technology in urban areas. What better way to test whether
(17:48):
your detection systems work than to fly objects over populated
areas and see if anyone can figure out what they are.
The story does not have a clean ending. Instead, it
leaves us with a tang of contradictions and unanswered questions
that point to something more complex than a simple case
of misidentified aircraft. Start with the most basic question. If
(18:09):
the aircraft demonstrated at Fort Rucker was a Pivotal blackfly,
and Pivotal firmly denies flying in New Jersey, then who
was actually operating similar craft over the Garden State. The
contractor's employee said it was their company. Was that claim
accurate or was it misinformation? If it was accurate, does
that mean someone else has access to blackfly aircraft or
(18:30):
similar technology? The US Air Force has blackfly aircraft. Could
it have been a military operation after all, despite official denials,
Consider the possibility that it wasn't a blackfly at all,
but something that looked similar. The defense contracting world is
full of competing technologies and parallel development. Maybe another company
(18:50):
has created an EVE tool with a similar design and
flight characteristics. Maybe that company really did conduct tests over
New Jersey under a private government contract, as the Fort
Rucker employee claimed. The federal government's handling of the entire
situation raises its own set of questions. Officials simultaneously assured
the public there was no threat while imposing flight restrictions
(19:13):
backed by deadly force. They identified many sightings as conventional aircraft,
but declined to explain others. They insisted on transparency while
withholding critical information that was only revealed months later through
internal documents obtained by journalists and researchers. By Christmas Eve
twenty twenty four, the reports in northern New Jersey had
(19:33):
slowed to a trickle. The phenomenon that had consumed news
cycles and dominated social media for weeks faded. The social
media attention given the mysterious object had all but ended
by the beginning of twenty twenty five. People moved on
to other concerns, other mysteries, other news cycles. The drone
panic of twenty twenty four revealed something troubling about the
(19:54):
intersection of rapidly advancing technology, government secrecy that may or
may not be justified, and a public increasingly skeptical of
official explanations. Whether the objects over New Jersey were classified
military tests, commercial demonstrations that went sideways, or a cascade
of misidentifications amplified by social media and mass psychology. The
(20:16):
federal government's refusal to provide clear and consistent information created
a vacuum. That vacuum got filled by speculation, conspiracy theories,
and fear. The residents who stood in their yards watching
unusual aircraft hover over their communities for weeks deserved better
answers than they received. The local officials who fielded concerned
(20:36):
calls from constituents deserved better information from federal agencies. The truth,
whatever it is, should have been provided clearly and promptly,
not doled out in pieces months later or left for
journalists to uncover through document requests. They all still deserved
those answers. The mystery may have faded from the headlines,
(20:57):
but the questions still remain. If you'd like to read
this story for yourself or share the article with a friend,
you can read it on the Weird Darkness website. I've
placed a link to it in the episode description, and
you can find more stories of the paranormal, true crime, strange,
and more, including numerous stories that never make it to
the podcast, at Weirddarkness dot com slash news
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
CrimeLess: Hillbilly Heist
It’s 1996 in rural North Carolina, and an oddball crew makes history when they pull off America’s third largest cash heist. But it’s all downhill from there. Join host Johnny Knoxville as he unspools a wild and woolly tale about a group of regular ‘ol folks who risked it all for a chance at a better life. CrimeLess: Hillbilly Heist answers the question: what would you do with 17.3 million dollars? The answer includes diamond rings, mansions, velvet Elvis paintings, plus a run for the border, murder-for-hire-plots, and FBI busts.