Two people have been arrested after allegedly carrying out a “hazardous drone operation” in the airspace by the main airport in the US city of Boston, police said.
Robert Duffy, 42, and Jeremy Folcik, 32, were arrested on Long Island, part of the Boston Harbor Islands, on Saturday night.
They were charged with trespassing, and police said they could face additional counts and fines over the drones, which were “dangerously close” to Logan International Airport.
Their arrests come on the heels of a string of drone sightings over the past few weeks across the US north-east. Police have provided no evidence suggesting that the sightings are related to these arrests.
The incident in Boston took place Saturday at 16:30 local time (21:30 GMT) when a police officer on duty noticed the device flying “dangerously close” to Logan International Airport, according to police.
Police said they located where the drone was and then tracked the operators’ position to a decommissioned health campus on Long Island. The investigation was aided by FBI counter-terrorism agents, due to the drone’s proximity to an airport.
Here’s what we know about the mysterious drones flying over New Jersey
Three people tried to flee when officers arrived, police said, two of them – Mr Duffy and Mr Folcik – were caught. A drone was found in a backpack worn by Mr Duffy, police said.
The third suspect is believed to have escaped the island in a small boat and has not yet been located.
It was not immediately clear whether Mr. Duffy and Mr. Folcik were represented by lawyers. They had yet to be arraigned, police said.
US authorities have been trying to relieve the anxiety of north-east residents by reassuring them that no threats to national or public security have been detected in the hundreds of the drone sighting reports.
The flying objects have been reported in multiple states, including New York, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Connecticut and Massachusetts, Though most of the sightings have occurred in New Jersey.
Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas told ABC News on Sunday the federal government was in “close co-ordination” with state and local authorities on the matter.
It was “critical” they be empowered to counter drone activity under federal oversight, he said.
The surge in drone sightings could be due, in part, to a change in federal law last year enabling the aircraft to fly after dark, Mayorkas said.
“That could be one of the reasons why people are seeing more drones than they did in the past now, especially from dawn to dusk,” he said.
He also said he was aware of “no foreign involvement” in drone sightings around the US north-east.
Gov. Kathy Hochul of New York has urged Congress to give states more power to deal with the drones that forced the runways at Stewart Airfield in the state to close for about an hour Friday night.
Federal officials were deploying a drone detection system to New York, she said on Sunday.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer has called for the technology to be sent as well to New Jersey.
