Hopefully, the U.S. military hasn't finally decided it's had it with San Francisco.
Our newsroom got a call about 15 minutes ago reporting that military helicopters were flying "really close" to the Bay Bridge. Our own reporter, Stephanie Martin, confirms the sighting: She says she saw four or five flying north in formation as she was driving on Cesar Chavez.
Update 11:50 a.m.
Captain Donny LeBlanc from Moffett Field tells KQED's Katrina Schwartz that the helicopters are part of a training mission from the 129th Rescue Wing of the Air National Guard. The helicopters are actually Pave Hawks, not Black Hawks, as some have speculated. The two types look almost identical, he said. The flight was to “familiarize ourselves with the local geography” since the Air National Guard is charged with rescue missions in the area.
Captain LeBlanc said the helicopters took off from and looped back around to Moffett. He didn’t know how close they got to the bridge, but said he'd look into it.
