On Monday’s broadcast of the Fox News Channel’s “Special Report,” White House National Security Communications Adviser John Kirby stated that the assessment of the reported drone sightings is “that this is lawful, legal, commercial, hobbyist, and even law enforcement aircraft activity. Some of it’s manned, some of it’s unmanned. We absolutely acknowledge that a lot of these are probably drones, but they’re flying legally, and it is legal to fly drones in nonrestricted airspace, as long as you’re registered with the FAA.”
Kirby said, “As we look at the information we’ve got, Bret, and we’ve now examined some 5,000 different sightings, we’ve added detection capabilities, additional observers. As you and I stand here today, to date, our assessment is that this is lawful, legal, commercial, hobbyist, and even law enforcement aircraft activity. Some of it’s manned, some of it’s unmanned. We absolutely acknowledge that a lot of these are probably drones, but they’re flying legally, and it is legal to fly drones in nonrestricted airspace, as long as you’re registered with the FAA. And there [are] thousands and thousands of these kinds of flights every single day. I think there [are] more than a million drones that are registered with the FAA just in the United States alone.”
Later in the interview, Kirby added that the investigation is ongoing.
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