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The super-secret helicopters are back, endlessly circling Boston Harbor and making kids think we're having an earthquake
By adamg on Wed, 08/24/2016 - 9:34pm
UPDATE: Helicopters are buzzing the area around Egleston Square as well.
Once again, reports are flooding into Helicopter Central here of low-flying, buzzing, really loud choppers just making loops around Boston Harbor, from Logan to Aquarium and back again, over and over again, so we're going to assume they're part of the same mysterious Pentagon/police training exercises we're not supposed to know about, except it's kind of hard to ignore giant blacked out eggbeaters roaring over your heads.
Katie Arsenault reports:
So loud in Eastie.
Isabelle Bourelle agrees:
HELLA loud right now around North End.
Eileen Murphy adds:
Just spoke w/ 2 neighbors who were on Broad St & thought copter was so low that it was going to land.
But at least, CarCarll reports:
My 12yo jumped out of bed bc she thought #helicopters were an earthquake, but dog hasn't barked once.
Neighborhoods:
Free tagging:
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Comments
Do the choppers have anything
Do the choppers have anything to do with the police closure of Park st at Adams in Fields Corner? Could just be a coincidence.
No
BPD and Transit PD don't have helicopters.
That we know about. . . :
That we know about. . . ::suggestively raising one eyebrow::
The Helicopters are chasing a
The Helicopters are chasing a very long rectangular like UFO that's hovering in the Boston, Dorchester, and Franklin Park Area. I seen the mysterious elongated UFO gliding silently through the sky with 5 red lights evenly distributed down the diameter, and 15 seconds later I saw the 4 helicopters in pursuit on 24Aug16 around 10:30 ish
i too have seen the exact
i too have seen the exact same thing in the exact same area
Choppers
Glad I found this, the helicopters are flying super low over Jamaica Plain too
Yes
heard them flying over not long before you posted.
Super loud and shaking houses
Super loud and shaking houses in Roxbury.
Deafening noise can now be reported to Mass RMV...
Deafening noise can now be reported to Mass RMV Massachusetts Registry of Motor Vehicles! https://www.massrmv.com/Feedback.aspx
Noise Free America http://noisefree.org
Oh. That'll help.
When the deafening noises are being created by Homeland Security, I'm sure the RMV will get all over that.
What sort of training is
What sort of training is accomplished by low flying helicopters? I do not get it...
Unless they are landing what exactly is the goal? They are not attack helos.
Practicing landing?
I just posted a video from NorthEndWaterfront.com - shows the copters repeatedly approaching the top of 75 State St. and getting oh, so close to landing.
Rappel
If you notice the way they are hovering right over it, it's probably to practice the motions of setting up a rappel of troops from the Blackhawks to the roof.
Yup, saw the video after your
Yup, saw the video after your post. Makes sense. BUT this training was seemingly useless during the marathon manhunt....
I don't think this is law enforcement
This looks like a special forces group practicing urban operations. My guess is they are preparing for military operations in other parts of the world, not domestic law enforcement.
"Other parts of the world"...
"Other parts of the world"... LOL
I work in 75 State St, and we
I work in 75 State St, and we haven't gotten any notice from the building management or anything.
Incessant Droning
I work near the Old Statehouse and it has been constant droning.
One question: what are the risks to civilians in all of this training? Not like helicopters ever crash when doing maneuvers or anything like that.
Helicopters Over Roxbury Last Night: Scary!
At about 9:20 PM, the racket began started. Initially, I thought they were crashing. You could see them and there was more than five. The sound was frightening. The pols, the media and public safety people let us down. Some news outlets did not have any knowledge about what was happening. Some said it was the police, others the Defense Department. Very few knew the implications of not adequately informing us!
.
Interesting...
You care about the safety of civilians if one of the helicopters crashed, yet don't seem to care about the personnel operating the aircraft.
I have one family member who
I have one family member who was killed in a military helicopter crash during a training exercise, one who was seriously injured, and one who was shot down in combat (but uninjured). Military aircrews sign up for that danger. Can you not see the difference?
Oh, I care about that too
But do explain the cost benefit in terms of lives that are risked here - including those who didn't sign up for that risk and have absolutely no control over it.
Note that there are a limited number IN the aircraft, while there are unlimited numbers of people on the ground, too.
Well
If one of these helicopters lands on a bicyclist and a turkey in a location that isn't readily apparent which neighborhood it is, get ready for the first million-comment UH thread
only if there's also a
only if there's also a rainbow involved.
My cousin's husband used to
My cousin's husband used to fly a Blackhawk for the 160th SOAR "Nightstalkers" (you saw them in Blackhawk Down). One of the reasons our special operations forces can be successfully inserted inside hostile (or "friendly," ahem - Pakistan) countries is that their helicopters fly fast and low, making it difficult to pick them up on radar.
I sweep the skies with fire
I sweep the skies with fire and steel
My highway is the cloud
I swoop, I soar, aloft I wheel
My gobbling calling loud
I fight with gleaming wings the wind
That dares dispute my path
I leave the howling storm behind
I ride upon it's wrath.
I laugh to see your tiny world
Your toys of ships, your cars
I rove an endless road unfurled
Where the mile stones are the stars
And far below, men wait and peer
For what my coming brings
I fill their quaking hearts with fear
For death…is in my wings.
Unmarked Helicopters
Training
Training and exercise is key to preparedness. Soldier Systems Labs in Natick develops a majority of the technology used in rapid aerial deployment. City settings are necessary training grounds for our active military response teams. Flying in the city presents many different challenges to a pilot not available out in the desert or an open training facility.
Complain today. Hopefully you wont ever have to hug or thank an active service member for saving your life.
Flying in the city
Right. So we should get that practice in a city that is packed full of people, just to make training mistakes and casualty counts more wartime realistic?
That's right folks! BE VERY AFRAID! How dare you ask any questions about risks we impose on you, you unAmerican traitor!
Are you aware that there is a longstanding tradition of military not being used in civilian contexts and why?(ahem Kent State ahem)?
You left out the whole
You left out the whole firebombing of multiple buildings part leading up to the infamous incident at Kent State.
The real reason the military is limited in domestic use is because of abuses in the Civil War and Reconstruction era.
Arguably the militarization of our police since the 1970s and all the LEO 'exemptions' written into law are blatantly violating those limitations and limitations in both the state and federal constitutions prohibiting special titles or privileges.
Wow.
I knew today was gonna be special when I read the Doug Bennett thread, but I never dreamed it would be "apologists for the Kent State shootings" special. Thanks for that unexpected jolt of levity, anon.
You are clearly very agitated
You are clearly very agitated and argumentative by nature. Who said anything about not being able to ask questions? These are not questions, they are complaints.
Isn't it more productive and enjoyable to stay on task and enjoy conversation rather than snark and word twist? ahem ahem!
What are your thoughts on speed cameras and the new electronic toll units on the mass pike?
I prefer
Aware of my environment, and unwilling to take bullshit, platitudes or insults as an answer to serious questions about the state of the world.
Now go fly your kite - you have very little summer vacation left to play with
Training not the issue, lack of transparency worries some
"Complain today. Hopefully you wont ever have to hug or thank an active service member for saving your life."
I don't see anyone complaining about the training itself. People are complaining because:
1.) No information is being offered to the public. The press releases do not even use the word "helicopter" and do not discuss locations that would be affected.
2.) The public had absolutely no input on this activity. They could have at least pretended to care what we thought about using our public spaces as testing grounds for military training. It comes off as arrogant for the DOD to just show up and do whatever they please. Granted, this isn't Bikini Atoll, but what if they make a mistake? Considering we don't even know what they are doing, we as a public cannot even begin to weigh the risks vs benefits of allowing this.
3.) Perhaps Boston, a city that recently experienced a close brush with martial law, is not the best candidate for tight-lipped military training.
I'm also curious
Whether Marty and Charlie invited the helicopters, tried but were powerless to stop them, or were caught just as unawares as the rest of us.
Oh for god's sake
Hopefully one day I will not have to deal with idiots like you who blow a gasket anytime anyone doesn't offer full-time 100% unconstrained adulation of anyone in a uniform, and who happily overlook all the other people whose efforts also serve to keep you alive every day.
UHUB makes it on the Drudge Report
See 'Officials Tight Lipped..." link
Curses, foiled again!
Looks like it now links to the Channel 25 report.
Huh?
Why would Fox 25 come up first for this search? Do they just hard keywords in their html (I'm not looking :( )?
https://www.google.com/#q=drudge+report+helicopter+boston
Raw Video from Foxnews Story
Different angle of the helicopters, and they were load. In the US, we shouldn't allow this BS in civilian areas.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x2MLhrR0O1Y
I'd rather have this sort of
I'd rather have this sort of thing (with enough public notice) than, say, buzzing Manhattan skyscrapers to take pictures of Air Force One.
Amazon Prime prototyping logistics of drone delivery program
using helicopters while the drones are still in development, waiting for next gen Li-ion batteries to come out. C'mon why think its some elaborate military operation when a simple answer like Amazon doing testing satisfies Occam's Razor?
Get the Report...
Get the Report via
https://www.faa.gov/about/office_org/headquarters_offices/apl/noise_emis...
Almost every day there are
Almost every day there are military helicopters circling Fenway Park. By my account, almost anyone in the Air Force, the Navy, National Guard and a few other government agencies had taken this sightseeing tour. (They call it "service".)
I am glad to see your money put to good work in your neighborhoods too.
How is this justifiable as training?
Imagine a crash taking out of a block of people at home at night in their three-deckers, and an official having to go on TV and justify why they needed to practice Flying Military Helicopters Low At Night over dense Boston? What career official wants to risk that.
Or perhaps they are trying out new privacy-invading sensing equipment, and lying about it?
Or perhaps they are conducting a real anti-terrorist operation, and lying about it?
They might even be lying
They might even be lying about these being helicopters! They could be sky dragons. I added the word "sky" to differentiate them from land dragons, which burrow under the earth, and which I also made up. But to be fair, I am a CIA plant, and I can't tell the difference between reality and my own subliminal propaganda anymore.
The majority of US military helicopter crashes...
occur during exercises just like this and have increased in the last few years.
"Twelve helicopter crashes killed 30 service members [in 2015], a death toll that was three times that which resulted from helicopter crashes in 2014. The deaths have largely occurred during training missions at home stations." Washington Free Beacon, Jan 2016
Three Military aircrafts flying over Southie.
Anyone call the Mayor's office about this?