(2017 US Army photo, UH-60 Black Hawk from 16th Combat Aviation Brigade)
Very early this morning, we noted on Twitter that a low, loud passing helicopter was identified on tracking software as a U.S. Army UH-60 Black Hawk (similar to the one above). As it headed up the West Seattle shoreline, another one was flying over Vashon Island; it too crossed the peninsula, but headed east over Lake Washington, while the first one turned around and headed back south. Today, also via Twitter, we learned these were training flights. The 16th Combat Aviation Brigade (from Joint Base Lewis-McChord south of Tacoma) said, “As the days become ‘shorter,’ our pilots will fly earlier in the evening to complete required night vision training flights. In the summer it does not get dark enough, early enough, to fly under night vision at hours when most people are still awake.” They added that, “At a given moment, during weekdays, there are several 16th CAB helicopters in the air all over western and central Washington.” More often than not, military aircraft aren’t identified on standard online flight trackers, but the two we heard in the midnight hour last night were.
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