The exact page text, read by your browser's voice.
December 2024 — January 2025
The national wave and the local share: In November and December 2024, reports of large, low drones — first over New Jersey, then nationwide — produced the biggest American sky-reporting episode of the database era; more than 5,000 reports went to the FBI in the New Jersey phase alone. The federal response is part of the record: a joint statement by the Department of Homeland Security, the FBI, the FAA and the Department of Defense addressed the reports as they mounted, and on 28 January 2025 the White House stated that, after research and study, the drones flying over New Jersey in large numbers had been authorized by the FAA to be flown for research and various other reasons, and that "this was not the enemy." Northeast Indiana had its own chapter. WANE 15, Fort Wayne's CBS affiliate, reported in January 2025 under the headline "'The size of hot tubs': Northeast Indiana & northwest Ohio counties report hundreds of drone sightings," and reported federal and Jay County officials investigating multiple drone sightings in Jay County, where the Jay County Emergency Management Agency said drones had been spotted near areas recently affected by bird flu — a commercial turkey flock in Adams and Jay counties having tested positive in early January — and that the reports had been shared with the FBI. No origin for the Jay County drones was announced in the coverage reached.
Fort Wayne in the database that winter: NUFORC's Fort Wayne file for the wave's peak month contains a report of 18 December 2024, 10:54 p.m., from the city's north side: six observers, a black-and-silver triangular object estimated the size of a small car, with lights, changing color and a sound reported; the filers said video existed. NUFORC's explanation field for the report reads "Drone — Possible," with a note that the light on the bodies in the video was likely being emitted by the phone. The entry is a fair specimen of the era's whole record: a real report, promptly filed, of something seen over Fort Wayne on a December night in the middle of a national drone scare, carrying the reporting center's own ordinary explanation as its standing annotation.
Sources:
- WANE 15 (via NewsLocker's Fort Wayne file and the Fort Wayne Update newsletter of 31 January 2025) — "'The size of hot tubs': Northeast Indiana & northwest Ohio counties report hundreds of drone sightings" (January 2025); the Jay County EMA investigation report.
- National UFO Reporting Center, sighting no. 185606 — Fort Wayne, 18 December 2024 (explanation field: "Drone — Possible").
- Joint statement of DHS, FBI, FAA and the Department of Defense on reported drone sightings (December 2024), and the White House statement of 28 January 2025, as reported at the time; FBI report volume (over 5,000) as documented in the scholarly summary of the episode (Frohlich, 2025).