The recent sightings of puzzling unidentified aircraft in New Jersey and other states have triggered yet another round of unanswered questions — and fueled conspiracy theories.

For one, the odd objects have sparked a visual public mayday and melee — one that might be mirroring elements of the ongoing unidentified anomalous phenomenon (UAP) issue, spurring talk of secretive saucer crashes by run-amok alien crewmembers with expired driver licenses.

Mischaracterization of what's seen. Public anxiety about what's not known. Government officials seemingly not clear on what's happening. Toss in Capitol Hill lawmakers demanding answers about what to do next. It's all enough to give you a case of the high- and low-altitude heebie-jeebies.



Does the government know more?

Others have different ideas, however. For example, the drone sightings are real and they are government- and/or industry-operated drones, said Robert Powell, an executive board member of the Scientific Coalition for UAP Studies in Austin.

"There are too many, and they are too large for them to be civilian," Powell told Space.com. "I don't think any adversary of the United States would dare try to fly drones into our territory at this level, and if they did, I would think we would respond."


Powell added that that he feels confident that government officials know much more about the drones than they are telling the public.

"This of course leads to the same type of problems as with the UAP issue. Anxiety kicks in and people see drones everywhere they look," said Powell.

Moreover, the media is not capable of distinguishing between reports of drones versus reports of normal aircraft, nor are they adept at asking the right questions of government officials, Powell said.