The mysterious drones that have been plaguing the skies over the Northeast shut down the runways of Stewart International Airport Friday night, prompting Gov. Hochul to demand the feds step in.
“This has gone too far,” Hochul said in a terse statement Saturday, in which she noted the runway of the Orange County facility was shut down for an hour because of the unidentified aircraft.
Stewart Airport services both commercial and military flights and is adjacent to a New York Air National Guard base, where the 105th Airlift Wing is stationed.
The unidentified drones — which have been hovering over New Jersey for nearly a month and have been seen in Maryland, Pennsylvania, and Massachusetts — were also recently spotted flying over LaGuardia International Airport and Newark Liberty International Airport.
The runways were closed at 9:40 p.m. “following a report from the FAA about a drone sighting at the airport,” according to the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which operates Stewart.
The runways were reopened at 10:45 p.m., “and there were no impacts to flight operations during the closure,” the spokesperson told The Post.
The Biden Administration should give federal law enforcement support to the region “to ensure the safety of our critical infrastructure and our people,” Hochul demanded, adding she “directed the New York State Intelligence Center to actively investigate drone sightings” back in mid-November.
She also urged the state police “to coordinate with federal law enforcement to address this issue.”
While “those efforts are ongoing,” Hochul said it is time for Congress to take action.
“In order to allow state law enforcement to work on this issue, I am now calling on Congress to pass the Counter-UAS Authority Security, Safety, and Reauthorization Act, first introduced back in June by Rep. Mark Green (R-TN).
“This bill would reform legal authorities to counter-UAS and strengthen the FAA’s oversight of drones, and would extend counter-UAS activities to select state and local law enforcement agencies,” she wrote in her statement. Counter-UAS stands for “counter unmanned aircraft system.”
“Extending these powers to New York State and our peers is essential. Until those powers are granted to state and local officials, the Biden Administration must step in by directing additional federal law enforcement to New York and the surrounding region to ensure the safety of our critical infrastructure and our people.”
Drone sightings have also been reported across the five boroughs as well as on Long Island.
Most of the sightings have occurred in New Jersey, where scores of drones have been spotted by Coast Guard sailors and local cops.
