Drone questions demand answers

Don't PANIC!

That's what federal officials are telling residents up and down the East Coast who are understandably alarmed by reports of mysterious drone sightings. The message that the increased activity is nothing threatening, and that some of the sightings are likely stars or other planetary phenomenon or regular piloted aircraft, is probably the correct advice.

But there are legitimate concerns. No, we are not worried about aliens and UFOs, though worries about those long-standing flights of imagination will never disperse. And the uninformed remarks by Rep. Jeff Van Drew of New Jersey that the aircraft are being launched from an Iranian mothership parked off the East Coast and should be shot down by the military only juiced the speculation and were indeed irresponsible. The Pentagon shot down Drew's remarks and said there was no threat to national security.

And yet, despite all the questions, there have been no real answers.

In a time of unsettling uncertainty hovering over our planet, the inability of the federal government to definitively respond about what might be happening is troublesome. There are now millions of drones being flown for recreational and legitimate business purposes across the nation, but the feds don't seem to have much of a handle on how many or where or what the big picture looks like. There are at least 5,000 recent reports of drone activity in the region, and federal officials say at least 100 leads were checked out with no real findings.

But what if there was some nefarious activity from a foreign nation? How would we respond? What if some corporation or individual was using the aircraft in such a way as to be a privacy violation?

Sen. Chuck Schumer tried on Wednesday to require Washington to provide more information but unfortunately he was blocked by the reliably obstinate Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky, who said he was not convinced there was any urgency — despite the measure, the Unmanned Aircraft Systems Act, having support from the FBI, Federal Aviation Administration, and departments of defense and homeland security.

Schumer, the outgoing Democratic majority leader from New York, wanted to quickly address civilian concerns by tacking a bill onto pending legislation that would have started a pilot program giving state and local law enforcement more wing space. These agencies would have been able to track drones in flight and disrupt or disable suspicious ones. Schumer's bill also would have required the Department of Homeland Security to use tracking technology to identify drones and their operators.

Schumer's bill had bipartisan support and President-elect Donald Trump has supported more regulation of drones. Schumer should try again to get the bill launched in 2025. Perhaps by then, the current federal government will have given its constituents a satisfactory explanation for what's happening in the skies.