Mystery helicopters buzzing Boston area
By adamg - 7/21/11 - 6:58 pm
Local Twitterati and Redittors are all abuzz about the pair of Chinook helicopters spotted flying over the area throughout the day. Even AlertNewEngland has no idea.
Jeremy Marin wonders if they're trying to cool the city. Matt Noyes has another theory:
Chinooks only mate when it's over 95 degrees. Mystery solved.
Comments
I feel like such a
I feel like such a failure!
Honestly, when I turned on the scanners this morning, I even turned off Boston Skyways (the helicopter frequency) because there was just too much chatter. Who knew it might be interesting?!
Reminds me of this Onion
Reminds me of this Onion bit...
I actually spotted three of them flying in a line along the Charles at around 11:45 this morning.
Crazy guy
down the street has been telling me about these choppers that have been following him around since Christmas. He thinks they are FBI agents.
"All day long the poor guy's
"All day long the poor guy's been watching helicopters and tomato sauce"
Whirly Birds
I saw 3 following the Mass Pike going west. I assumed they were taking ariel photos, maybe for mapping purposes. Like for an esape route, you know?
Don't let the sauce thick...
"Don't let the sauce thick..."
Better that than living your
Better that than living your life like a schnook.
Taking Whitey for aerial view of undiscovered grave sites
The bodies of a number of Whitey Bulger's known victims have never been recovered, not to mention the bodies of many other victims known only to him. I believe he's willing to point out the general area of the burial sites from the air, in exchange for freedom for Grieg.
Critical Mass
It was Critical Mass's response to Beacon Hill complaints.
http://www.universalhub.com/2011/nobs-object-copter-sounds
Three chinooks
Just to echo the earlier comment, there were definitely three flying when I saw them cross the Charles into Cambridge yesterday.
Where's the Shadow Government
When you need it?
I'm appalled by all of you!
Chinooks?? You really should be more politically correct and call them Roto-Americans!
Just to flesh out what I saw in +140 chars
Thursday morning, shortly after I got to work (near Stop & Shop in Allston/Brighton/whatever), a single Chinkook flew in toward downtown roughly following the Pike. Later, right as I was about to go home for the day, a trio of them were flying the same route in the other direction.
We don't really have windows facing toward downtown, so I couldn't see where they went, but the sightings along the Charles during the day would make sense, I guess. But I'm curious where the other two came from — they either arrived earlier from the same direction, or came in from elsewhere.
Since people seem interested, the day before there was a Blackhawk flying the same route. The smaller Blackhawks go by every now and then and I always wonder where they're coming from & going, but it's much less common to see these bigger Chinooks flying that route. Does the Air Force actually keep active aircraft at Hanscom AFB? I thought it was mostly a research facility, like a skunk works MIT offshoot or something. But if not Hanscom, then where else due-west of downtown Boston would there be a steady trickle of helicopters coming from — and are they actually going downtown, or out to sea, or what?