Posts across social media took off Thursday evening after people living in areas across Bellingham saw and heard low-flying military-style helicopters in the Samish, Sehome and Happy Valley neighborhoods, as well as in Fairhaven and Blaine.
But it’s unclear who the helicopters belong to, what kind of helicopters they were and if it was part of a military training on the behalf of U.S. forces or the Canadian Armed Forces.
The public information officer at Naval Air Station Whidbey Island said the Navy was not running helicopter training exercises Thursday night, nor were they activated for search and rescue missions in the area. A number of EA-18G Growlers, electronic warfare aircraft, from the naval air station had been diverted Wednesday, Jan. 15 to Bellingham International Airport because of fog.
The United States Coast Guard District 13, which covers Washington and the Pacific Northwest, said there were no trainings in the area or search and rescue operations during the time. Earlier last week, the Coast Guard, Bellingham Fire Department, the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration, and Remote Medical Training were conducting training operations for people in distress in water.
Cascadia Daily News has reached out to Border Patrol, the Army base at Joint Base Lewis-McChord outside of Tacoma as well as the Royal Canadian Forces Base Comox on Vancouver Island for comment.
This story will be updated if more information becomes available.
Annie Todd is CDN’s criminal justice/enterprise reporter; reach her at annietodd@cascadiadaily.com; 360-922-3090 ext. 130.
