HELICOPTERS: Practicing now, flying over Seahawks game later (update: flyover aborted)

(Added: Photo sent by Erin)

9:52 AM: In case you missed the advance notice – the military helicopters in the area now are practicing for this afternoon’s Seahawks flyover, so they’ll be back later too. They’re from Joint Base Lewis-McChord in Pierce County.

2:07 PM: As discussed in comments, the actual game flyover was aborted. Via Twitter/X, the 16th Combat Aviation Brigade says that was because of “communication issues within Lumen Field.”

ADDED 9:18 PM: Though there was no stadium flyover, we have two photos to add. From one of the West Seattle flyovers – Jamie Kinney caught this very close-up view:

Jerry Simmons saw them on the ground:

49 Replies to "HELICOPTERS: Practicing now, flying over Seahawks game later (update: flyover aborted)"

  • Daniel September 10, 2023 (10:32 am)

    Oh that’s what’s causing everything to rumble and shake every 10 minutes.. felt really ominous 

    • WSB September 10, 2023 (10:37 am)

      They made a VERY low pass a few minutes ago – we were northbound through Morgan Junction right beneath them.

      • Daniel September 10, 2023 (1:24 pm)

        Saw them this time, turns out their path goes right over my place which is at a high elevation, no wonder I was feeling the rumble 

      • Jay September 10, 2023 (2:06 pm)

        Yeah, they were almost brushing the trees in Puget Ridge. The military and Cessna flyovers are a little too close for my liking. If I can read the markings they’re too low in my opinion. I don’t think any aircraft should be able to fly below 150 feet.

        • Info September 11, 2023 (12:56 am)

          agree that the noise from low flying airplanes should be worked on, but for them to fly higher it will require involving a lot of agencies. the SEA airport class B lies overhead with a floor of 1100 ft that planes coming from Boeing Field have to fly under. with WS being ~400 ft up, there isn’t much space to avoid getting into the airport’s airspace.

        • Carmen September 11, 2023 (8:41 am)

          They are flying too low as have other military planes and Cesnas. I did not receive a notice so it was discomforting. We are in Cottage Grove abt 1/4 mile above the Dwamish and the trees lost dry foliage. The hangings on the walls are crooked. Just saw one more. Not good without notification. How can we get on that list?

  • Steph September 10, 2023 (10:49 am)

    Yup they just flew low over our house on Erskine Way in Seaview – just south of the junction. Wild to see so close!

  • Rhonda September 10, 2023 (11:18 am)

    Those thumps are the heartbeat of America and the sound of freedom 🇺🇸

    • Mr Henry September 10, 2023 (11:26 am)

      Agree 100%.   Bring on that noise, sound of freedom for sure 🇺🇸  Semper Fi 🫡

    • Mr J September 10, 2023 (12:35 pm)

      Revisionist much? When did the military become the “heartbeat” of America??? I get you were in the military. This country isn’t about 1 part it’s the sum of all the parts that need each other and can’t function independently without the other i.e. immigrants, framers, businesses, courts, military, healthcare workers etc etc. just calm down with the rhetoric.

      • Anne September 10, 2023 (1:35 pm)

        Take your own advice.

        • Bill September 11, 2023 (8:02 am)

          That was my exact thought as I read the comment then I looked down and there you were!

      • Rob Oneill September 10, 2023 (1:35 pm)

        If there wasn’t a military there would have never been an America.Bring on the Freedom Birds. While playing Free Bird.

        • Pepé Le Pew September 10, 2023 (4:36 pm)

          Without the French Navy and French rifles, we’d be British and still have bad teeth.

      • People September 10, 2023 (1:51 pm)

        Mr J: thank you.

      • Jay September 10, 2023 (2:07 pm)

        Too many people mistakenly believe that nationalism and patriotism are the same thing. Nationalism is the source of many of our country’s problems.

        • Rhonda September 10, 2023 (6:07 pm)

          Our U.S. military isn’t nationalism, and appreciating isn’t, either. 

  • sbre September 10, 2023 (11:40 am)

    LOVE the military fly-overs!! 🇺🇸 

  • TJ September 10, 2023 (12:08 pm)

    Those air crews deserve the honor of these flyovers more than we deserve the honor of seeing them do it. 

  • Svenry September 10, 2023 (1:36 pm)

    Seems like the flyover was called off for whatever reason. We had a nice, close pass right in front of Hamilton Viewpoint.

  • AJ September 10, 2023 (1:40 pm)

    My vet neighbor and my anxious dog are sure loving these frequent military and sports exercises over residential areas. Yeah, we really are considering our vets! /s 🙄

  • Svenry September 10, 2023 (1:44 pm)

  • Matt September 10, 2023 (1:59 pm)

    Staying at the artic club balcony suite and that was a TREAT for an av geek. We got lots of videos. They came RIGHT above columbia tower, super low through the city.

  • Yma September 10, 2023 (2:00 pm)

    Any word on why the actual game fly-over was aborted?

    • WSB September 10, 2023 (2:03 pm)

      We saw them flying back that way at 12:35ish. Not watching the game but will check.

  • chopper September 10, 2023 (2:10 pm)

    After half a dozen practice flybys, I’ve become less reassured about our military helicopters.   If it takes six practice passes to prepare a fly over a football stadium, how could they possibly perform in combat situations in foreign locations where multiple practice flights are not realistic?

    • Mike September 10, 2023 (3:09 pm)

      Because they do practice runs for real war too.  If there’s a comms issue with a stadium holding 60,000+ people at the edge of the most populated city in the state, you call it off.

      • Chopper September 10, 2023 (4:25 pm)

        “Because they do practice runs for real war too.” Mike?How can they do practice runs over hostile foreign locations?And they were also flying dangerously low over Seattle neighborhoods  with a population many times more than the stadium, over and over with the same communications.And what could the ““communication issues within Lumen Field.” have to do with a fly-over?  If the assigned mission was a flyover for television and a football stadium audience, did they succeed in their mission?

        • Marina September 10, 2023 (6:23 pm)

          Lol Chopper are you actually serious or just trolling? 

        • Bill September 11, 2023 (8:06 am)

          Maybe you should join up and lend your superior knowledge and expertise!

  • Jeepney September 10, 2023 (2:26 pm)

    Saw them practicing and it was pretty awesome.

  • Teacher September 10, 2023 (2:56 pm)

    Absolutely, what could be any more American that a loud, gas-guzzling donation to the NFL, that ends up not happening as intended. Too bad we no longer recognize the education of our youth as freedom, and we choose to put our tax dollars to work here, while schools fight over scraps. But sure, Merica! Eff yeah!

  • Lagartija Nick September 10, 2023 (3:01 pm)

    Yay Military Industrial Complex! Nothing quite stirs my soul like seeing our tax dollars fly around in honor of … a football game. Go ‘Murica!

    • Marina September 10, 2023 (6:25 pm)

      Good lord, every time with the tax dollars. Flyovers are training that’s already budgeted for. 

      • Lagartija Nick September 11, 2023 (12:32 pm)

        We spend nearly a trillion dollars a year on our “military”. Which is more than the next 10 countries military budgets combined. Most of that money goes to the Military Industrial Complex to build planes(f-25?)/tanks(Bradley) that don’t work and bombs (nuclear+) we’ll never use. Furthermore, those contractors use our tax dollars to lobby (bribe) The Congress to keep the graft going. A trillion dollars per year could fund a whole lot of education, healthcare, veterans care, infrastructure, hospitals, and even police that this country desperately needs more than sports flybys. So yeah, I think it’s wasteful to rah-rah parade around our military hardware for a football game. 

  • Daniel September 10, 2023 (4:28 pm)

    The miserable negativity in the comments is incredible lol, clearly we have it good if this is all it takes to make people complain

    • Marina September 10, 2023 (6:30 pm)

      Gets me every time. Only the people of a country that’s known peace on their lands for far too long will complain about training missions. How many Ukrainians you reckon are complaining about their pilots practicing right now because it’s too loud or takes too much money out of the training budget? Too many people in Seattle have the privilege of never having to live through war. 

      • Jethro Marx September 10, 2023 (10:22 pm)

        I don’t think we need more Seattlites to experience war; personally I’d like to reduce the experience of war by Ukrainians. And Russians. Oh and Syrians. And Yemenis, (really the whole horn of Africa area) and Ghanaians, Nigeriens, residents of the many, many areas still peppered with unexploded ordnance in Southeast Asia, and of course, those who live on borderlands in the area of the Karakorams.  We like to glamorise war because it is raw and powerful; we may fetishize the mighty military until we say ridiculous things like Mr. O’Neill, who says,”If there wasn’t a military there would have never been an America.”This of course, is a bizarre framing of how America came to be. And of course ‘the sound of freedom’ is also the sound of terror if one is in the wrong place at the wrong time far from our own shores.That said, I love watching the war machines, because it’s impressive to see them flown. But the romantic BS about how great war and armies are is a bit much. We can enjoy the display of deadly power and terrible skills without spinning a yarn to justify it. In fact, if you think America is skilled at war that is just you probably don’t know many veterans.

        • Daniel September 10, 2023 (11:12 pm)

          No ones glamorizing war here, it’s a brutal, awful, yet often unavoidable aspect of humanity. What an utterly ridiculous comment.

          • Jethro Marx September 11, 2023 (8:09 am)

            One comment literally used an old advertising line from Chevrolet and described the sound of attack helicopters as “freedom.”  The whole purpose of the flyover is to attract recruits by romanticizing war.  You cannot get people to join the Marines by showing pictures of young men packed in a room sitting cross-legged and filling out arcane paperwork.  I am not knocking the military, just our cultural propensity for treating it like an idol.

        • Marina September 11, 2023 (12:09 am)

          I am a veteran, Jethro. I’m also a Ukrainian. No one in these comments is romanticizing war. What an absurd thing to say. 

          • Scarlett September 11, 2023 (8:20 am)

            No, war is romanticized.  The author Chris Hedges writes that war, or even watching a military parade, is like a feel-good drug, heightening our senses and making us feel more alive, purposeful, even acting as an aphrodisiac.   Unless  you are the soldier who is killed, or loses a body part and finds out the war was avoidable.   

  • TJ September 10, 2023 (6:44 pm)

    Its weird that people can’t understand that these helicopters and planes are flying around all the time, just not usually over the city, and the pilots have required flight hours that this covers. What makes this a sad time though is when people think they shouldn’t fly over the city anyways, complain about precious fossil fuels, it contributing to climate change, negative effects on vets or immigrants, the military industrial complex, and on and on. I think for most is it really just boils down to the fact they don’t like glorifying the military.

  • Scarlett September 10, 2023 (7:23 pm)

    The warnings of an oversized military exerting too much influence in civilian societies goes back to antiquity.   And it’s every American’s moral obligation to make sure every soldier is fighting a just or necessary war, if there really is such a thing.   

  • Admiral-2009 September 10, 2023 (10:30 pm)

    It seems like it’s the Seahawks who need to practice more!

    • Daniel September 10, 2023 (11:13 pm)

      Haha yeah that was embarrassing

  • K September 11, 2023 (8:37 am)

    How do you people complain this much?! You all need a hobby.

Sorry, comment time is over.