Orange County officials continue to investigate drones with multiagency operation
In Orange County, officials have received hundreds of reports of suspicious drone activity just in the last week.
More Stories
Unidentified drones are continuing to leave residents on edge.
In Orange County, officials have received hundreds of reports of suspicious drone activity just in the last week.
"This isn't like your little Walmart drone,” says Orange County Executive Steve Neuhaus. “This has been now almost a week where we’ve had these drone sightings, and it’s becoming more and more frequent.”
Neuhaus says the county has received hundreds of reported drone sightings in the last week, even some that caused a shutdown at Stewart Airport on Friday.
Orange County officials say they’ve been getting reports of drones with an orb-like appearance, lights either on or off, sometimes including a green flash.
The search for answers continued Tuesday night. News 12 got an inside look at a multiagency surveillance operation in Orange County.
Over eight teams are stationed throughout the county, monitoring 911 calls for drones. Officials can launch their own drones to get a closer look. They're also using an app through the FAA. The goal is to learn as much information about these drones as they can.
"We can zoom in on what these drones are, try to learn what they look like, are they carrying anything, are there drones attached to the bigger drone,” says Emergency Services Commissioner Pete Cirigliano.
On Tuesday night, between 6 p.m. and 9 p.m., the 911 center received four calls about possible drones in areas such as Goshen and Newburgh.
"We launched a drone to check that out and it ended up being unfounded,” says Cirigliano.
But in order to do this, Orange County officials are asking the public to ground all of their personal drones Tuesday and Wednesday nights.
They're also asking that if anyone sees a drone close to critical infrastructure to call 911 or their local police department. If it's not close to infrastructure, report it to the FBI tip line at 800-CALL-FBI.
