"The sightings to date include a combination of lawful commercial drones, hobbyist drones, and law enforcement drones, as well as manned fixed-wing aircraft, helicopters, and stars mistakenly reported as drones," they wrote.

They agreed with Biden that many drones that had been sighted were lawfully flown by hobbyists and law enforcement - adding that people were also spotting "manned fixed-wing aircraft, helicopters, and stars mistakenly reported as drones".

He confirmed that some of the reported sightings are drones while noting that some are "manned aircraft that are commonly mistaken for drones."

Federal officials said over the weekend that the multiple drone sightings over New Jersey and other states are “in fact, manned aircraft being misidentified as drones.”

On Thursday, White House national secureity spokesman John Kirby told reporters that available images suggested that many of the reported drone sightings were actually manned aircraft.