Why is there a helicopter circling low over our development, making pass after pass for the last ten minutes or more, at night, with absolutely NO lights on?
I’ve seen this thing several times flying barely over the treetops and it appears completely unlit from every direction.
What could be the strategy here? If they’re trying to sneak up on someone they’re using a VERY LOUD HELICOPTER. Everyone knows it’s here. Meanwhile, this is very active airspace to be blundering around in without any safety lights.
I can’t answer your question but I can report that when Barack Obama was in town I noticed actual black helicopters flying around. What they were up to I couldn’t say- I just assumed they were part of the security detail.
When I lived within the beltway I saw this once or twice. Not really a black helicopter that I could tell, just a normal looking one. It was just like a fly that wouldn’t go away though.
The local TV news copter regularly buzzed our house. Then I learned the pilot lived on the next street & was just checking on the house once or twice a shift as conditions permitted.
In the DC area the helicopters could be flying for a variety of reasons. First, the NOVA, DC and MD suburbs play host to a number of practice missions by the feds for a variety of purposes, though if you know where to look they often announce them ahead of time. If it is a police mission, tight turning circles are common for a perp search, and police helicopters tend to fly lower than most.
News platforms tend to stay at about 1000’ and hover, or perhaps move slowly to try different angles. Severe movements can hinder the microwave transmission to the tower, and we don’t want that. In Washington DC the four stations have banded together to use only 1 helicopter under the LNS (Local News Sharing) system. It is a black A-Star helicopter with no station graphics based out of Tipton Airfield on what was Ft. Meade in Maryland.
One thing to remember is that DC has a severe post 9-11 no fly zone which for most purposes can be construed as being “don’t fly inside the beltway” though it’s really not that. This is one of the reasons there isn’t a greater tv ‘chopper war’ as so much territory is off limits.
Given the time you quoted - 10:50pm, I have to ask: Do you live in Fairfax County near the spot a police involved fatal shooting occurred yesterday evening? If so then it is possible the LNS chopper came on scene at 10:50 to provide 15 minutes of live helicopter shots for the top of the 11pm broadcasts, but would then have departed after. There may have been some other breaking news in your area but I am unaware of any, having been busy with my own story at the time.
Regardless, back to the OP, there should be no occasion of a helicopter being totally ‘blacked out’, as the hazard to navigation would be excessive.
Fairfax County, but no news of a shooting of any kind. There was police activity, and the dispatcher alleges “someone fled a traffic stop on foot,” and a police helicopter was used, but insisted it would have had lights and markings.
It was shaped like a bog-standard police helicopter, no prod for refueling, but had absolutely no lights.
I doubt this could be observer error – but it doesn’t matter anyway. If I can’t see any lights at all from several angles at ranges of a few hundred feet to under 150 feet, no pilot could see it in time anyway. It’s just not safe blundering around in densely-traveled airspace.