At approximately 2:30pm yesterday afternoon, the first reports of military aircraft hovering over parts of Beaverton began to surface on social media.
The following video footage shows what many residents saw yesterday:
On Social Media:
On Reddit, a popular social media platform, a user who goes by the username “BigRedTek” posted an image with the header “Military helicopters over Beaverton?” Moments later, another user commented that they had been tracking “a flight of Apache with one Black Hawk in trail” using an online aircraft tracking website.
Meanwhile, on Facebook, Beaverton residents posted photos, videos, and reported similar sightings:
According to Jessica Van Ortwick: “There were 6 that flew over my house around 2:30pm and then another 6 that flew by around 4:30pm. Shook all of our windows. I’ve never seen them fly that low.”
Krista Hollen Noll reported: “I saw a total of 9 Black Hawks/Apache (can’t be certain- but looked like Black Hawks to me) a couple were flying really low (I’ve never seen them fly that low before). A little later I saw two Chinooks. They all seemed to head toward Ft Lewis WA direction.”
Possible Explanation:
While it is still unclear what residents saw yesterday, it’s likely that the helicopters seen by many eye-witnesses in Beaverton were rescue helicopters attached to the 304th Rescue Squadron of the Air National Guard that trains and flies rescue missions out of Portland, Oregon. They have been known to use Pave Hawk helicopters which are similar to Black Hawk helicopters. Pave Hawk helicopters have upgraded navigation and communication to help with rescue missions.
The 304th Rescue Squadron performed emergency evacuations during the Mount Saint Helens volcano eruption in 1980.
Today too around 7:00AM…hovering in Vose neighborhood…