Unusual amount of military activity over the skys of their cities?

I tend to sky/star gaze a couple times a day... And I drive about 150 mile a day...
The past four days I have seen a huge jump in the amount Military aircraft over LA's airspace. I would say %1000 or so-
Six heavy helicopters flying in some sort of formation,
a AWAK ( the large radar thing on top)
three f-18 looking craft also in formation,
three Large transports ( three separate occasions )
one fast as all hell skinny profile heli late at night
two, two engined fighters in formation passed over my house late at night last night...

If you lived in Los Angeles you would know that this is highly highly unusual.
In fact the one and only time I have ever seen close to as many military aircraft was the week after 9/11. This half week has been about twice as active-

Have others been noticing such events in their cities?

I am kind of concerned because they all seem to be traveling due west??? The ocean??? Iran is the other way /// MM

[edit on 13-7-2008 by mental modulator]

reply to post by mental modulator


Not but ten minutes after this thread and there went another transport???

Recently I've noticed where I live, in Florence Alabama, planes and helicopters fly over my house almost every day. They never used to do that.

reply to post by RyoZeflin


Who knows what it means???
It's sort of ridiculous here-- very unusual!
I can't emphasize it to proper proportion!
Have you noticed if the activity there is military or civilian?

I live in Vegas, but this past weekend i was in Anaheim (no not for Disneyland, but rather the beach) and i didn't notice anything, but i was too busy to look for unusual activity. I'm not sure how far Newport is from LA though...bummer. I wonder what's going down

reply to post by screamo


Ya,,, this to weird- I can't believe the local news has not reported this... Its ridiculous the numbers - its more like %2,000. I usually see a military craft once or twice a month.

Summer time is when the Air Force has its air shows. Therefore, you will always see an increase in air traffic all over. Jets have to get to and from various air shows. Plus you have regular exercises which results in TDYs for military members, etc.

I find nothing odd *shrug*

[edit on 13-7-2008 by greeneyedleo]

Originally posted by greeneyedleo
Summer time is when the Air Force has its air shows. Therefore, you will always see an increase in air traffic all over. Jets have to get to and from various air shows. Plus you have regular exercises which results in TDYs for military members, etc.

I find nothing odd *shrug*

[edit on 13-7-2008 by greeneyedleo]

Traveling due west??? There are no bases due west only the ocean... Plus this has not ever happened in my ten years in this one location, not any summer or time I can recall.

Could be anything man, stuff happens all the time thats make you go "hmmm". Probably nothing so dont get too alarmed or anything it will be okay- i promise.

Not trying to scare anyone, but take it for what it's worth. Prior to the invasion of Iraq, I noticed a TON of cargo air craft, fighter jets, etc that had never been apparent before. Who knows, maybe they are conducting new maneuvers or training exercises. I hope that's the case.

I'll keep my eyes peeled here in Pittsburgh, haven't noticed anything out of the ordinary recently in our skies.

reply to post by mental modulator


That means nothing.

And maybe you haven't seen it in the past. But the past couple of years, all kinds of squadrons have been moved, realigned, etc. due to BRAC. My own base saw a major change in aircraft and traffic. And I know many many others that have to.

I still see nothing to be alarmed about. But maybe because I'm around it so much and realize that these things happen and its normal.

Originally posted by mental modulator


If you lived in Los Angeles you would know that this is highly highly unusual.
In fact the one and only time I have ever seen close to as many military aircraft was the week after 9/11. This half week has been about twice as active-

Have others been noticing such events in their cities?

I am kind of concerned because they all seem to be traveling due west??? The ocean??? Iran is the other way /// MM

[edit on 13-7-2008 by mental modulator]

I live near Los Angeles, northwest, under the flight path for the Naval Air Base at Port Hueneme. It's so funny that you have this post, because I was thinking of starting one this past week, but didn't want to seem paranoid...lol

I've lived here almost all my life, and have gotten very used to the air traffic that we get, which is normally not too bad. However, this past week it got really frequent, like almost constant from morning until night. The first day or two, I just figured they were moving soldiers or planes, etc...but it went on all week. There were also more helicopters that I am used to seeing in the area. I can't say what type, as I heard them but didn't see them.
Something to note on the planes, was they weren't all big transporters, a lot of them were jets.

There hasn't been much this weekend, or maybe I've been too busy to notice, but I will pay attention this week and post an update if this thread is still going.

reply to post by mental modulator


There havn't been as many as it sounds like you've seen where I live. They're hard to make out sometimes, but I think there have been military ones. They've been flying really low, too.

A few months ago, I saw four very military-looking planes going in four different directions all opposite of each other. That was really strange and I'd never seen anything like it.

I live in Granada Hills (San Fernando Valley) up on the side of the hills and I've seen 2 Chinook helicopters flying very low over my house twice now (On Saturday and today, tuesday.) en.wikipedia.org...