An unexpected helicopter was seen circling over campus on the afternoon of Thursday, November 21st.
When students looked up at the blue sky on campus after the last block of the Thursday before Thanksgiving break, they noticed something out of the ordinary: a loud, disconcerting helicopter.
In an email to Student News, Scott Nichols, Director of Digital Communications, said, “[the helicopter] appears to be owned by a power line surveying company, which would explain their deliberate flight pattern over campus and our new property.”
The helicopter was seen flying over the wilderness area of the Webb campus, specifically the new property behind Faculty Field. However, the reason why the helicopter surveyed so low over our main campus remains unclear. One assumption is that it was there to survey for power lines.
Mr. Nichols said, “With the high voltage power lines we have behind campus and all the news about wildfires, I do not know if [the helicopter] was part of it.”
Nevertheless, a helicopter hovering above upper campus is an unusual sight.
Most powerline helicopters are for environmental survey purposes, review options, or documentary projects. It is very possible that the nondescript helicopter that was around Webb for one of these reasons.
The helicopter over campus created a unique scene for Webb students and faculties to see, and it added something unexpected and new to our beautiful sky.