Suspected drone sightings over Northeast US states have set off feverish speculation on and offline as to their origins.
The sightings, which began in mid-November and have even shut down at least one airport, are under police investigation, although some top US officials said many of the reported “drones” are actually manned aircraft.
A combination of vague official statements, and sightings near sensitive sites, have only fed the theorizing.
“It’s a famous and popular pastime of Americans to panic and make political hay out of things they don’t understand,” a security researcher told Wired.
Indeed, mass panics over unidentified flying objects in the sky “have been happening since the time of the Ancient Greeks,” another expert told 404 Media.