3 Black AH-1W SuperCobra's flying over NE Ohio

It was around 2:30pm today saw 3 Black AH-1W SuperCobra's flying low altitude around 200-300 feet in single file formation over Northeast Ohio heading towards Cleveland. I know for a fact they were Cobra's because they have the real deep thump sound its 2 blade rotors make. The thing I find strange is that they were Black, the Marines are the primary user of the Cobra and only ones I've ever seen are painted grey, also they appeard to be armed not sure if they were missles or launcher tubes or whatever they use but they had stuff attached to their weapons hardpoints.

I don't know of any Marine bases within a few hours of this location and if they were flying a training mission why were they armed? Did anyone in this area see this as well?

reply to post by Aliensdoexist


Bet that was a cool sight. The super cobra is my favorite chopper and favorite of a lot of Marines. Never seen them in black, could have been for black ops or base defense and not Marines or Navy.

I was at work and watched them fly directly over my workplace not more than 200 feet above me. I am about 20 miles east of Cleveland. There were absolutely no markings whatsoever on any of them.

Originally posted by IamAbeliever
I was at work and watched them fly directly over my workplace not more than 200 feet above me. I am about 20 miles east of Cleveland. There were absolutely no markings whatsoever on any of them.

I'll 2nd your statement of no markings, I didn't see any markings either. Heck I didn't even see the flashing signals that all aircraft are supposed to have on when flying. Just seems very strange I'd love to know more about what they were doing.

reply to post by Aliensdoexist


No, I saw no flashing strobes either. I was under the impression that this was required. And yes, they were fully armed. I would love to know where they came from and where they were headed.

I saw one of them around that time 3pm heading in the direction of downtown cleveland. I live right on lake Erie and I heard the chopper blades and ran outside. I saw a black cobra chopper flying around 500 feet above the roofs heading east to west at the city about 50mph . It looked fully loaded from the look of the wings but I am not sure if it was live ammo.

reply to post by dntwastetime


If you only saw one then that must mean that they broke formation and split up. Man i'd really love to know what they were doing the whole thing just seems very odd, you never see fully armed combat ready helicopters in this area with no markings, no strobes and painted flat black. Something must be up just wish someone knew more.

Could have been an Apache if it was painted black and they look almost identical. Just because it has the missle pods under the wing doesn't mean it's loaded with any ammo either. Those pods usually just hang there unless they decide to take them off because they're only ever loaded during training or combat.

Hi OP.
Thanks for the share. Very interesting.

I know we are states apart, I'm in TN. But for two days , this Thurs and Fri, we had some unusual activity too. A black helicopter, (definitely mil) flew low over the house and circled our neighborhood . It was definitely out of the norm . Also this was during the day.

In my case, I believe the helicopters were Black Hawks. I do have two pics. Maybe someone could ID them?

Strange indeed. Mine didn't seem to be armed.

I truly hope nothing is going down.

Take care OP and thanks for sharing. So glad you made this post...
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I even tried to find if the local NG were on a daytime maneuver but could find out nothing.
Honestly, there was no reason for them to do this over us?? Is there?