Unfinished Catalogue of Occasions Where we've Been Alarmed by Mysterious Luminous Phenomena in the Sky
In the heart of darkness, we wiped out the celestial lights and felt terror as we recognized our own lights shining back at us. The United States is gripped by a drone panic, and it's quite absurd. Residents in the northeastern United States are losing their minds over strange lights in the sky, conjuring up numerous outlandish theories. The truth of the matter is that our collective memory is fleeting, and we've panicked about unidentified objects in the sky - drones, UFOs, or even enemy bombers - far too many times before.
Over the past few weeks, the citizens of New Jersey and New York City have pointed upwards, trembling at the unusual lights above them that had previously remained unnoticed. The FBI has convened meetings to discuss the issue. New York State has even shut down a couple of runways at Stewart International Airport in Poughkeepsie. The White House is urging Congress to take action.
We've been down this road before, not too long ago. And what's most frustrating, in my opinion, is that we'll repeat this cycle in a few years. We'll forget all the sky monitoring hysteria that came before.
Humans have always been frightened by things in the sky that we don't understand. This fear has persisted for centuries. What changes, however, is the explanation for this fear. The answer to this question reveals a lot about the society that's afraid, but it may not enlighten us about the actual event.
Arthur Holland Michel, a drone expert and senior fellow at the Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs, told Gizmodo, "The sky above us is vast, mysterious, and eerie. It's completely natural for people to imagine fantastical images of secret, unknown aircraft in the night sky."
"At the same time, we should not disregard every potential drone sighting out of hand," Michel added. "We know for a fact that drones can be used for harmful purposes, and we should not lose sight of that fact just because people are seeing drones in the sky that do not, in fact, exist."
The sky has been a source of panic for the past 25 years, and the events in New Jersey are echoing a similar sentiment. In December 2019 and January 2020, residents in Colorado were convinced they had witnessed unexplained lights in the sky. The national media covered the story, and local leaders became alarmed. The authorities promised to intervene. The cases that could be verified proved to have mundane explanations. They were aircraft, drones, and other common items.
In 2016, a commercial airliner was preparing to land at Heathrow International Airport when it collided with an object it mistook for a drone. If the collision had occurred, it would have marked the first time a commercial aircraft had struck a drone mid-flight. However, a subsequent investigation found that the object was likely a plastic bag.
One of the earliest sky-related panics took place in Canada, not the United States. In 1915, after Canada had entered World War I, Ottawa became convinced that it would soon be attacked from the skies. The mayor of Brockville, Ontario, contacted the Prime Minister on February 14, 1915, with an extraordinary tale. He claimed that three German airplanes had breached Canadian airspace from New York. Dozens of citizens reported sighting the planes, which shone lights across the town and dropped incendiary devices.
Panicked, the Prime Minister acted swiftly, prompting much of Ottawa to go dark in anticipation of an aerial assault. "Ottawa Braces for Aeroplane Raid. Several Aeroplanes Conduct Raid into the Dominion of Canada," read a headline from the time. No attack materialized, and it was eventually revealed that some children in a nearby village had released balloons filled with fireworks to scare the townsfolk, causing the city's temporary lockdown.
Similar scares occurred along the eastern seaboard in the United States over the following years. As World War I progressed, the country believed that German spies were piloting strange aircraft in the sky. In 1916, the sightings were concentrated around Delaware, New Jersey, and Washington D.C. In 1917, just a week after the U.S. entered the war, two National Guardsmen in New Hampshire opened fire on an unidentified object in the sky.
During World War II, America worked to instill a sense of paranoia in its citizens concerning what they saw in the sky. Driven by a fear of aerial bombings and a desire to make citizens feel engaged in the war effort, the U.S. Civil Defense Forces established the Ground Observer Corps. Americans were trained to recognize Axis aircraft and then monitored the skies with binoculars from 14,000 coastal locations.
After the war, many Americans continued to scan the skies. The U.S. had trained over a million citizens to watch the skies, and they did not stop observing once the conflict ended. In 1947, a military balloon crashed in Roswell, New Mexico, sparking the first major post-war sky-watching panic. UFOs had been making headlines before the crash, but Roswell significantly amplified the phenomenon.
During the Cold War era, unusual aerial phenomena were a source of widespread fear and hysteria. This panic was fueled by reports of unidentified objects in the sky, which some believed were advanced Soviet weapons, while others speculated that they were extraterrestrial spacecraft. The Cold War UFO panic reached its peak during the Clinton years with the popularity of the X-Files, a paranormal television series that highlighted UFO myths.
As the new century began, the focus of fear shifted away from UFOs and Soviet weapons, but it returned with a vengeance in the era of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). With the increasing use of UAVs in military operations and the popularization of affordable drones for recreational use, people began to fear the presence of these small aircraft in the sky.
Journalist and drone expert Faine Greenwood predicted this trend in 2019, warning that our natural tendency to ascribe meaning to unknown phenomena could lead us to overlook other explanations for unusual sightings. Greenwood's work highlights other examples of sky panics, including sightings at Gatwick airport during the holiday season and the shutdown of an Australian airport due to a mistaken drone sighting.
Greenwood is interested in historical examples of sky panics, such as the 1909 and 1913 airship mysteries in the U.K. and the 1561 celestial phenomena in Nuremberg. According to Greenwood, it is important to approach these panics with a critical eye, recognizing that they do not necessarily mean that there is no underlying explanation for the strange occurrences.
In the modern era, drones and surveillance cameras are a ubiquitous presence in our daily lives. They are used for military operations, law enforcement, and commercial purposes, and their visibility in the sky can be a source of anxiety for many people. This anxiety is further exacerbated by the fact that authorities around the world are increasingly using drones to monitor citizens and gather intelligence.
Authorities in Ukraine, for example, have used drones to gain a bird's eye view of the battlefield, providing a chilling view of the conflict from the perspective of the drone operator. Meanwhile, authorities in other parts of the world are using drones to spy on citizens, raising concerns about privacy and civil liberties.
It is understandable that people might feel anxious about the presence of drones in the sky, but it is important to approach these phenomena with a critical eye. The abundance of information and misinformation in the digital age can make it easy to jump to conclusions, but it is important to consider all available evidence and to avoid making assumptions without sufficient evidence.
In conclusion, humans have a long history of being fascinated and frightened by strange things in the sky. From the Cold War UFO panic to modern-day drone panics, our natural tendency to ascribe meaning to unknown phenomena can sometimes lead to fear and misunderstanding. However, it is important to approach these panics with a critical eye, considering all available evidence and avoiding making assumptions without sufficient evidence. By doing so, we can better understand the world around us and navigate our fears with a clearer head.
In the future, advancements in artificial technology, particularly drones, might spark more precipitous reactions when they are spotted in the sky. As Arthur Holland Michel points out, the vastness and mystery of the sky often fuel our imagination, leading us to perceive unknown aircraft as fantastical or even harmful.
Furthermore, the integration of technology like artificial intelligence and drones into various sectors, such as military operations and law enforcement, could heighten public concern about their use and encryption, thereby contributing to future tech-related panics. This highlights the importance of fostering transparency and open communication in these technologies to reduce potential alarm and misinterpretation.
