Drone flights are temporarily banned over some areas of New Jersey

The Federal Aviation Administration on Wednesday temporarily banned drone flights over 22 areas across New Jersey amid complaints of strange and often bright drones in the night sky.

“At the request of federal security partners, the FAA published 22 Temporary Flight Restrictions (TFRs) prohibiting drone flights over critical New Jersey infrastructure,” the FAA said in a statement to CNBC.

The TFRs will last until Jan. 17 and cover large parts of central and northern New Jersey, including Elizabeth, Camden and Jersey City, the second most populous city in the Garden State.

Residents have reported seeing unexplained drones flying through sky for weeks, which prompted criticism from local officials and law enforcement, who said agencies including the FBI and Department of Homeland Security are not transparent enough with residents.

The FBI and DHS said last week that they had seen “no evidence” that the drone sightings “pose a national security or public safety threat.” They added that they had no evidence of a “foreign nexus” to the drones. On Saturday, the agencies said they had found “many of the reported drone sightings are, in fact, manned aircraft being misidentified as drones.”

“At this point, we have not identified any basis for believing that there’s any criminal activity involved, that there’s any national security threat, that there’s any particular public safety threat or that there’s a malicious foreign actor involved in these drones,” a DHS official said over the weekend.

Meanwhile, drone stocks rallied this week after Palantir announced a partnership with Red Cat Holdings, coupled with the rise in interest around the mysterious sightings. Shares of Red Cat, a Puerto Rico-based drone provider, are up rougly 10% on Thursday.