The night-time drone flights over parts of rural Colorado and Nebraska that have baffled investigators will now be the subject of a multi-agency task force, federal and state authorities announced.
The drones, or unmanned aircraft systems, have been sighted in northeast Colorado and southwest Nebraska over the past three weeks, tending to appear after sundown and fly in formation in a grid pattern over the remote areas. They have been sighted mostly over Colorado.
The task force was announced following a closed-door meeting on Monday of dozens of state agencies from Colorado and Nebraska with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and other federal officials, the FAA said.
The sheriff of Morgan County, Colorado, Dave Martin, will lead the task force, authorities said. Martin did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The FAA said on Monday in a statement that it has been unable to identify the source of the drones. Last week, the FAA said multiple divisions within the agency were investigating the sightings.
“We have contacted UAS (unmanned aircraft systems) test sites, and companies that have received authorization to operate drone in these areas,” the FAA said. “To date, we have not been able to determine that any of these operators were the source of the reported drone flights.”
The FAA said it has been in contact with federal law enforcement and national security agencies for assistance in identifying the aircraft.
One of the law enforcement officials at Monday’s meeting, Sheriff Carlton Britton of Sedgwick County, Colorado, said in a phone interview that about 77 federal, state and military agencies were in attendance.
The task force’s initial focus will be to plot “hot spots” where the drones have been sighted, he said. Britton said he has seen the drones, which have blinking aviation lights about five feet apart, and fly in an east-west pattern
“They’re pretty loud – basically they sound like flying lawn mowers,” he said.
Britton said his concern is that a drone could impede medical helicopters that fly into the remote area to transport patients to Denver some 180 miles away.
Source: KFGO
Wait, 77 agencies are getting involved in what seems to be a relitively easy to figure out occurance. The military has ELINT euipped aircraft, and drones, put them up and wait for a call, fly to the area get a bearing on the Control Frequency because there damn well is one or more, and then dispactch folks to the area and politely ask what the hell is going on?
For Christs sake this ain’t space aliens, it is a completely known technology, with known frequencies, and known control protocalls. With a 5 foot wingspans (rotorspans?) that is going to leave a lot of other manufacturers out, again, which narrows down the frequencies that could be used to control them. This is not that frigging hard, we do not need 77 agencies investigating this. Sure 77 agencies should be briefed and asked to be ready to respond if needed, but this does not require a world class mind to figure out. We have at least a dozen companies making drone tracking and counter UAS technology, ask one of them to give a hand.
The top photo in this article is confusing, nowhere in the story does it show anything like this. Is that from the story or just whatever multipIe drone photo they could haul up? I believe these are widely scattered incidents and the news stories are getting the word out to look up, causing folks to see what may have been above their heads before. This person says he saw one so others start looking up. Now the one that was hovering outside the ladies window was probably some pervy kids trying to peek in a window, that is, just plain wrong, and against the law. It is covered by the same peeping tom laws as have been on the books for decades. That she started screaming because she saw a drone? Really? wow, what does she do when a bee flies near her? get a shotgun? if it is on the other side of the window, that is creapy, but to start screaming is just being a drama queen.
The multiple drones at night is interesting, since if they are doing ag they are commercial and under 107 they have to insure visibility at night, which these seem to be doing. If they are commercial they are registered, and should be easy to track, and if they are commercial ag units they probably DO already have the ability to be identified, since DJI And others have had that feature available for over a year now in thier software to assist Law Enforcement.
However, I am NOT seeing formation flying, That would be multiple drones flying in close proximity in the same manner and direction. No, these are single drones doing what appear to be autonomous mapping missions. The drones may be flying all day too but are much harder to see during the daytime, as opposed to drones with lights set up to insure they ARE seen at night.