Late in 2019 there were a number of reports around mystery drones flying over northeastern Colorado and western Nebraska. The origin of the drones remained a mystery for quite a while (and still does), but a bunch of research has given some insight into the concern around unidentified drones flying around the country.
Nevertheless, the documents already released suggest that the FAA, despite a short-lived, but strenuous effort, was unable to determine the origin of the flying formations of sizable aerial devices reported by many credible witnesses in December and January. Senior FAA officials were able, however, to conclude that “there is high confidence these are not covert military activities.”
The released documents contain no evidence that any federal criminal laws were broken by whoever was operating the devices, although the FAA has withheld at least one key document discussing the legal issues surrounding the case. No document yet released suggests that the mystery drones ever encroached on any U.S. military installation, or even into any airspace that was under special FAA restrictions.
So, although The War Zone and the SCU have pursued the Colorado drone flap for over half a year, we still don’t know who was behind the mysterious activity, and from what we’ve seen so far, no one in the Federal Aviation Administration knows either. It’s clear from these FOIA releases that the FAA, state and local authorities in Colorado, and even the AFOSI, took the sightings quite seriously, but it appears that their attention quickly shifted elsewhere once the public reports stopped.
It seems like whoever was behind the drone flyovers learned that there was a large investigation going on and soon stopped their shenanigans, but it still makes for a fascinating mystery. Based on the “space potatoes” that were found, I am wondering if it was some kind of crop health experiment or a agriculture company doing some kind of research. Again, we’ll likely never know unless the owners of the drones come forward.