Military Helicopters Descend On Washington In Bizarre Very Low-Altitude Show Of Force (Updated)
Using military helicopters to intimidate U.S. citizens is certainly a new tactic in the ongoing crisis.
BY JOSEPH TREVITHICK AND TYLER ROGOWAY JUNE 2, 2020
THE WAR ZONE
U.S. Army UH-72 Lakota helicopters, as well as UH-60 Black Hawks, one possibly belonging to the Federal Bureau of Investigation, have been flying extremely low-level show-of-force maneuvers over areas of Washington, D.C. in obvious attempts to try to
disperse groups protesting the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis, Minnesota last week. Some of the helicopters have held a hover right over groups of people, hitting them with their rotor wash and the deafening sound of their rotors and engines. This comes after President Donald Trump
announced he had ordered hardline measures against protesters and rioters in the nation's capital, including the deployment of additional national guardsmen, federal troops, and federal law enforcement officers.
Daniella Cheslow, a reporter for
WAMU 88.5, American University Radio, in Washington, D.C. posted the video seen below of one UH-72 Lakota "parked" above a group of people on Twitter. Steven Dengler, the co-founder of XE Currency, a FOREX software tools and services company, and a licensed helicopter pilot, chimed in to point out that, at least under Federal Aviation Administration rules, this maneuver was very illegal.
{snip}
The UH-72 in this instance has red crosses on white square backgrounds on its door and under the fuselage, denoting that its primary mission is as an air ambulance. It's not clear what unit the Lakota, or a standard Black Hawk that was also seen performing similar maneuvers, are assigned to. Both the D.C. National Guard and the active Army's 12th Aviation Battalion, the latter of which is based at Davison Army Airfield in Virginia, have UH-72s, including examples in the air ambulance role, as well as UH-60 Black Hawks.
There is also a possibility, albeit much less likely, that the helicopters might have come from somewhere else given that the Trump Administration has called in substantial additional federal military and law enforcement support.
{snip}
While some of the UH-60s may be from the 12th Aviation Battalion, Doug Davies, who also goes by the Twitter handle
@Dougilis, spotted a Black Hawk flying around D.C. just as the curfew took hold that appears, by every indication, to be one that belongs to the FBI's elite Hostage Rescue Team (HRT). He was kind enough to share some pictures of it that he took, seen below, with us. This raises the possibility that at least some of the UH-60s involved in these show of force missions may belong to the FBI.
As you can see, the UH-60 in question has fully equipped operators, replete with suppressed carbines, hanging out of their doors, some of which have four-tube night vision goggles mounted on their helmets. HRT is America's most elite special tactics unit.
{snip a lot of pictures and tweets}
@Aviation_Intel
@alert5
any clue what this bird is? Just started orbits above DC.
{snip}
This one just flew right over the middle of DC, which is some intensely restricted airspace:
but it's MedStar. It gets to do that.
= new reply since forum marked as read
