SAN DIEGO COUNTY, Calif. — The mystery surrounding drone sightings in New Jersey and other parts of the country has sparked concerns about similar sightings in the skies above San Diego.
And now, Camp Pendleton is acknowledging recent drone activity near the Marine Corps base, and military officials tell CBS 8 the drones weren't theirs.
CBS 8 reached out to command personnel at Camp Pendleton about the rumored drone activity.
Captain James C. Sartain told CBS 8 that over the period of a week from December 9-15, “There were six instances of unmanned aerial systems (UAS) observed entering Camp Pendleton’s airspace, with no threat to installation operations and no impact to air and ground operations.”
This news follows similar reports of drone incursions over the Hill Air Force Base in Utah and the Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio. Unidentified drones have also been spotted over the U.S. Air Base at Ramstein in Germany.
In a closed meeting, members of the House Intelligence Committee were briefed Tuesday on the mysterious drone sightings in the northeast.
“The takeaway for me was the vast majority of lights in the sky are, according to these government officials, are manned aircraft," said U.S. Representative Raja Krishnamoorth. "But again, show us the data.”
On Tuesday, CBS 8 received a video recorded at around 1:00 a.m. that morning along with reports from multiple 911 callers describing a possible drone in the skies near downtown San Diego and Coronado. But CBS 8 has confirmed with the Port of San Diego that the aircraft in question was a small, manned airplane, and not a drone.
“This right here is our Enterprise Matrice 30T,” said Kevin Gallegos, Enterprise Sales Manager at Drones Made Easy, while showing CBS 8's Brian White the largest drone they keep in the shop.
Gallegos pointed out the drone's blinking, anti-collision lights required by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) for night flying.
“It’s pretty bright right here on the top," said Gallegos while pointing to the pulsating light. "This is going to be visible for up to three statute miles.”
Gallegos also showed CBS 8 the red and green lights that can also be visible at night.
“These are directional lights for the aircraft that will allow you to see the heading of the aircraft, so which way is facing forward, which way is facing back,” said Gallegos.
Most hobbyist and commercial drones can fly for about 30 minutes on one battery, according to Gallegos, and they're only allowed by the FAA to fly up to 400 feet in most cases.
“What we’re seeing is reports of people flying for hours at a time," explained Gallegos. "Those are going to be more fixed wing aircraft, so kind of like a plane, the arms are fixed in position, and those can kind of fly around for a lot longer, for hours at a time.”
According to the FAA, more than a million drones are registered in the United States.
