The Federal Aviation Administration has issued a temporary ban on drones for more than two dozen areas across New York City, Long Island and Westchester County as officials investigate the thousands of recently reported drone sightings in the region.
The restrictions, issued on Friday by the FAA for “special security reasons,” are set to stay in effect until Jan. 19.
Impacted locations include areas in all five boroughs, Suffolk and Nassau counties on Long Island, and Yonkers and New Castle in Westchester County.
Under the restrictions, unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) are not permitted to operate in those areas, unless operators are granted explicit government authorization. The restrictions cover “some of New York’s critical infrastructure sites,” Gov. Kathy Hochul said in a statement, adding the action is “purely precautionary.”
While there are no known threats to public safety, Hochul vowed to “continue aggressively monitoring the situation” while calling on Congress to pass legislation giving local officials the resources and authority to better respond to reports of drone activity.
The restrictions came as a result of multiple conversations Hochul had with Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas. She said they will work a “state-of-the-art drone detection system” the state received from the Biden administration earlier this week.
The latest ban was announced a day after the FAA issued similar restrictions on more than 20 towns and cities in New Jersey — the first sweeping ban since residents began reporting mysterious drones over parts of the Garden State in the days leading up to Thanksgiving.
In the weeks since, the sightings have spread to several states along the East Coast. On Tuesday, the FBI confirmed it had received more than 5,000 tips about drone sightings in the tristate area.
An investigation by “trained visual observers” determined the sightings have included a combination of lawful commercial drones, hobbyist and law enforcement drones, manned fixed-wing aircraft, helicopters, and stars mistakenly reported as drones.
The FBI said the activity had so far not presented a national security or public safety risk.