The mysterious drone sightings that captured national attention were a classic case of mass hysteria.
by Aaron Gordon - Jan 29 2020, 11:37am
On the night of December 30, Sergeant Vince Iovinella of the Morgan County Sheriff's Department in rural Colorado was on patrol when the calls started coming in about drones.
“Residents began calling in reports of drones of unknown origin moving above houses and farms,” Iovinella wrote in a statement obtained by Motherboard via a public records request. “The numbers would range from 4 to 10 drones in an area at a time. Some were reported to be low and at least 6 ft. long.”
https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/884xv3/the-colorado-mystery-drones-werent-real
Posted by BeauHD on Thursday January 30, 2020 02:43PM
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Motherboard:
On the night of December 30, Sergeant Vince Iovinella of the Morgan County Sheriff's Department in rural Colorado was on patrol when the calls started coming in about drones. “Residents began calling in reports of drones of unknown origin moving above houses and farms,” Iovinella wrote in a statement obtained by Motherboard via a public records request. “The numbers would range from 4 to 10 drones in an area at a time. Some were reported to be low and at least 6 ft. long.” Iovinella further reported the drones had white and red flashing lights as he and other deputies made “several attempts” to follow the drones. The drones were moving “very fast at times” but could also “sustain a hover over an area for long periods of time.”
“There were many sighting's [sic] coming in and at the same time,” Iovinella continued. “It is believed that there could have been up to 30 drones moving around the county if not more and appeared to be working in a search pattern across the county.” This was yet another night on eastern Colorado's new drone patrol, following a slate of reports on mysterious fixed-wing drones in the area. They'd come out at night between approximately 7 to 10 p.m. The story, which was first reported by the Denver Post, got international press attention. “In all of these cases,” Iovinella wrote in this statement, “it is unknown who owns the drone or what their purpose is.” That's because the drones never existed.
The Colorado Department of Public Safety (CDPS) “confirmed no incidents involving criminal activity, nor have investigations substantiated reports of suspicious or illegal drone activity.”
“Of the 23 reports between January 6 and January 13 when the investigation was underway, 13 were determined to be 'planets, stars, or small hobbyist drones,'” reports Motherboard. “Six were commercial aircraft, and four remain unconfirmed. None of the 90 reports from November 23 onward were confirmed instances of illegal drone activity.”
https://news.slashdot.org/story/20/01/30/2124222/the-colorado-mystery-drones-werent-real
Hundreds of pages of documents provide consistent detailed descriptions of the drones and conclude the military wasn't behind the operation.
By Brett Tingley and The War Zone staff - July 15, 2020
As covered in previous reports by The War Zone, law enforcement agencies in numerous rural counties in eastern Colorado and adjacent areas of Nebraska and Kansas received an influx of reports of large drones flying in formations at night for a period of several weeks during December 2019 and early January 2020. Many law enforcement personnel were among the reporting witnesses. In short order, the “mystery drone” wave also elicited serious expressions of concern from at least two U.S. senators and attention from Colorado’s governor and state public safety agency. The activity soon drew the attention of regional and later national news media, as well.