A New Jersey reporter was left stunned after he saw over 50 mysterious drones over a county in the state in one night.
NewsNation’s Rich McHugh travelled to Monmouth County in The Garden State on Thursday night after being told of active sightings.
McHugh, who is from New Jersey, managed to capture one of the drones on his phone before calling in his photographer to help take better images of them.
Speaking after his sighting, he recalled travelling around the area for two hours and saw over fifty of them.
He said: ‘I got to say, if this is not the military it is even more terrifying. These things look like they are fixed wing and have multiple lights.
‘We tried to chase one and it rapidly sped off, I’m not really sure how to process what we say last night. We were both stunned by the whole experience.’
McHugh also posted an update to his social media on Friday evening saying he had been initially skeptical of the story and went out again that night but didn’t see any.
Footage has also since emerged online showing what appears to be an individual firing at a drone with an airsoft gun as it passed overhead.
It remains unclear exactly where in the country it was captured, as drone sightings have since extended to at least 12 counties across the tri-state area.
NewsNation’s Rich McHugh travelled to Monmouth County in The Garden State on Thursday night after being told of active sightings
McHugh, who is from New Jersey, managed to capture one of the drones on his phone before calling in his photographer to help take better images of them
On Friday night, Ocean County Sheriff Michael Mastronardy said his police department sent up a drone then disappeared into thin air.
His New Jersey force launched their own drone up after one of his officers saw 50 unmanned aerial vehicles ‘coming off the ocean’.
Mastronardy told McHugh in an interview that they put up an ‘industrial grade’ drone to follow one of the devices, but it quickly slipped through their grasp.
The incident is just one of many drone sightings concerning locals in the Garden State and beyond.
On Friday, White House National Security Communications Advisor John Kirby insisted that the public had nothing to fear, despite the mass sightings.
Kirby said most reports were likely to be cases where manned aircraft were mistaken for drones.
But he admitted that officials were still struggling to corroborate some of the sightings and urged the public to continue to submit reports of any unusual activity.
Ocean County Sheriff’s Office said it has been struggling to track the flying objects as they don’t give off heat like regular drones.
‘We don’t know [why]. It’s not something we’ve had our hands on or experienced,’ one officer said.
Footage has also since emerged online showing what appears to be an individual firing at a drone with an airsoft gun as it passed overhead
This photo provided by Trisha Bushey shows the evening sky and points of light near in Lebanon Township, N.J., on Thursday, Dec. 5
The first drone sightings appeared over the US Army’s Picatinny Arsenal and over Donald Trump’s golf course in Bedminster on November 18.
Since then the FBI has since received more than 3,000 tips, with reports of varying levels of credibility cropping up in at least 12 counties throughout New Jersey, as well as eastern Pennsylvania and Orange County, New York.
As hysteria began to spread across the country, president-elect Donald Trump led calls for greater transparency.
He demanded the drones flying over multiple US states be shot down by the Biden White House after days of mysterious sightings across the sky.
Trump didn’t directly address the sightings over his club, but urged action from Joe Biden and the government in a Truth Social post Friday.
The sightings are among scores which have been causing alarm in New Jersey and beyond
He wrote: ‘Mystery Drone sightings all over the Country. Can this really be happening without our government’s knowledge. I don’t think so! Let the public know, and now. Otherwise, shoot them down!!! DJT.’
His comments were echoed by New Jersey lawmakers as well as representatives from other states.
However, former FBI counter-drone specialist Robert D’Amico told DailyMail.com that shooting the drones down would be reckless and could result in serious injury or death.
He suggested that the uptick in reports is more likely due to ‘hysteria’ focusing more untrained eyes on the sky, as well as people launching their own drones to try and figure out what’s going on.