Earlier this year, Dan Moore, who owns a farm in North Carolina, had unusual visits by not one, but two secretive aircraft. After a Russian-made Mi-17 Hip-type helicopter made an emergency landing, a dark gray Bell 407 arrived with replacement parts. The Bell 407 may well have been one of a trio that flew around the greater Los Angeles area in California earlier this year, something The War Zone covered extensively, and both of these helicopters may belong to an especially shadowy U.S. military aviation unit.
Moore, who is currently a member of the Civil Air Patrol, among other things, and has been a pilot for many years, had his encounter with these helicopters in May. However, he shared this story in more detail in a piece that the Air Facts aviation journal published this week. Full story on The Warzone
“Wait, what? A helicopter? In my yard? I was confused, but also primed and ready to return the favor when I figured out somebody had made an emergency landing at my farm.” https://t.co/zkhAumSBg0
— Air Facts Journal (@AirFacts) September 15, 2021
It has been speculated that the above helos originated (or at least their mission did) from Felker Army Air Field (AAF) which is part of Fort Eustis which is a part of the larger, overseeing Joint Base Langley-Eustis (JBLE). The WarZone addressed this speculation with their 2017 article It Looks Like The Army’s Most Secretive Aviation Unit Needs A New Home. In the 2012 JBLE article Felker Army Airfield: The story behind Fort Eustis’ ‘hornet’s nest’ operational units at Felker were characterized. Don’t try to get the bright idea to try to do a Wikipedia search on Felker AAF because you will get redirected to their JBLE informational page under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License (??). I think it’s safe to correlate that Felker AAF spawns some spooky activity.
As somebody who learned to fly within the parameters of the Washington VFR Sectional, I am very familiar with the area surrounding Felker AAF. It’s situated close to Langley AFB, NAS Norfolk, and NAS Oceana, and is a mere 78 miles south of PAX River, just to touch on a few. Anybody who has flown in the eastern Washington VFR Sectional corridor should be very familiar with the integration of military and civilian air traffic. I’ve included the below graphics to help you visualize where Felker AAF is located, and what it looks like.
Combined with these destinations, the types of aircraft used (Russian-made Mi-17s modified for heat) and their opaque ownership structures (U.S.-based ghost companies) provide clues that these flights were most likely designed to be covert and be involved in sensitive missions.
— Christiaan Triebert (@trbrtc) September 1, 2021