If you live in Oakland, you have probably frequently wondered, “Why do I hear helicopters right now?” It can often be really difficult to answer this question! Maybe we can all figure it out together.
Enter the date you heard the chopper(s), and the reason. (It’s OK if you don’t know it; someone else may add that information.)
Another OaklandWiki page can help you figure out why there might be helicopters by figuring out which one(s) you’re seeing: Identifying Helicopters You Might See in Oakland.
If there is a large activity, like a protest, you may hear some “Situational Updates” over the Oakland Police Scanner.
Recent Sightings (aka “I hear OPD Nazgul—what’s going on?”)
| Date…………………… | Time.......... | Where |
Reason (if known) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2018-08-02 | Approximately 8:30PM | Dogtown | Unknown, current theories include a hostage situation on Adeline as well as a possible manhunt for a sex offender |
| 2017-12-13 | 11:10am | Oakland Courthouse | Watching bomb squad. News article. |
| 2017-12-11, 12 | 11:45pm+ | Montclair | Channel 2, Channel 7 choppers. Snake Road Fire |
| 2017-12-04 | 2:30pm | Montclair Village | Channel 2 chopper (I think); downed tree on Moraga? |
| 2017-10-05 | 1:45pm | Berkeley/Oakland I-80 | Police engage in shootout on I-80 http://theheatmag.com/police-engage-in-shootout-with-a-suspect-in-oakland/ |
|
2017-10-04 |
7:00pm | Emeryville/Oakland Border | |
| 2017-10-02 | 5:15pm | Snake Rd. | Channel 2 chopper; fallen tree on Snake near Zinn |
| 2017-09-12 | 1:05pm | 5th Ave. and Embarcadero | |
| 2017-09-06 | 4:45pm | Rockridge | Police looking for two missing kids |
|
2017-09-06 |
1:30am | West Oakland/580 | CHP trying to locate someone at 32nd and Telegraph. (from OPD scanner) |
| 2016-11-28 | 10:35am | Emeryville/Oakland Border | Hovering over one spot for over 20 mins so far... |
| 2016-10-21 | 9:30 pm | Lower Bottoms | |
| 2016-10-21 | 8:30am+ | Dimond | Water main break at Montana and Dimond SFGate |
| 2016-09-24 | 8:15 pm | Downtown | Keith Scott Protests |
|
2016-04-24 |
5pm | East Oakland: between 85th and 100th, near MacArthur |
Unknown, The "dogs are going to bite you script" was being broadcasted
|
| 2016-02-10 | 10:00 am | Foothill and Coolidge | |
| 2016-01-07 | 7:30 pm | Grand Lake/Adams Point | 2 popo-copters circling, searchlights sweeping. One broadcast a taped loop (not too clear, but suitably Big-Brotherly, a la “give yourself up now or the dogs will find you … residents: stay inside your homes …”) Update. |
| 2015-11-19 | 5:30 pm | East Oakland | Unknown helicopter monitoring barricade situation described by KRON4 |
| 2015-09-11 | 5:00 pm | Downtown | KTVU helicopter monitoring Urban Shield protest noted by Dave DeBolt |
| 2015-09-11 | 2:30 pm | Rockridge | Single flyover by Coast Guard helicopter |
| 2015-09-07 | 6:00 pm | Fruitvale & MacArthur | Unknown. Speaker instructing people to go inside their homes. |
| 2015-09-04 | 3:30 pm | Rockridge, Piedmont Ave. | Homeland Security checking background radition. Tail # N411DE per Ali Winston |
| 2015-08-25 | 2:00 pm | Emeryville | Probably police helicopter searching for shooting suspect per KCBS report |
| 2015-08-17 | 7:50 am | Shepherd Canyon | ABC-7 news chopper; something 4.0 earthquake related? |
| 2015-08-14 | 6:30 pm - | downtown | Nathanial Wilks Vigil |
| 2015-08-12 | 17:00 | West Oakland | Channel 2 helicopter, police shooting area |
| 2015-08-12 | 16:30 | West Oakland | ABC7 helicopter spotted after police shooting on 27th and Northgate [1] |
| 2015-07-28 | 7:05 pm | Downtown | Line of 5 helicopters proceeding toward northwest. |
| 2015-07-17 | 7:30-7:45 pm | Crocker Highlands | |
| 2015-07-02 | 10:00 am | Flora and Havenscourt | |
| 2015-06-19 | 10:00 am | Downtown | They’re just watching the parade |
| 2015-06-16 | 5:00 pm | Downtown | Unknown reason or description; heard from the 15th and Jefferson via State Building |
| 2015-06-11 | 9:30 pm | South Berkeley | Sounds like they were looking for a missing or abducted child. Something about brown hair and maybe a white dress. |
| 2015-05-26 | 9:00 am | Fruitvale, near Mitchell and E. 23rd | Police searching for armed robbery suspects tweet 1, tweet 2, 2 of 3 caught |
| 2015-05-25 | 9:35 pm | Downtown | ? |
| 2015-05-18 | 12:15 am | Downtown Berkeley | Helicopter going in circles since 20 minutes over downtown Berkeley… Unknown description or reason in local news |
| 2015-05-18 | 12:00 am | W. Berkeley | Helicopters and sirens. Called police and was told CHP was chasing a stolen car. |
| 2015-05-12 | 9:00 pm | Downtown | Heard from my apartment in Downtown, near State and Federal Buildings. Unknown Description or Reason. |
| 2015-05-07 | 6:00-8:00 | Fruitvale near MacArthur x Fruitvale (exact location) | CHP and OPD looking for suspect who allegedly tried to run down a police officer. Suspect got away. |
| 2015-05-01 | 9 am | Downtown/West Oakland | May Day Stop Police Brutality Port Shutdown |
| 2015-05-01 | 6:15 am | Downtown | Helicopters flying in general vicinity of Downtown; => port protest? or tech shuttle protest? or maybe just traffic? |
| 2015-04-27 | 6:45 pm | Downtown | Demonstration related to Freddie Gray death and funeral in Baltimore |
| 2015-04-21 | 12 pm-1 pm | Fruitvale | Helicopter flying low broadcasting message that they have them “surrounded and will unleash dogs that will attack”. This was somewhere near Harrington. |
| 2015-04-14 | 2 pm - 5 pm | Downtown | RevCom USA Stop Police Murder Protests. Heard the Helicopters from 15th and Jefferson. Likely Black Lives Matter protest and freeway disruptions. |
| 2015-03-15 | 2 am | West Oakland/Emeryville | Helicopter with a bright searchlight kept circling the area of 32nd Street, from Chestnut through Peralta. I live on Adeline & 32nd Street, and they flew over the area for a good hour. The streets seemed fairly quiet, so I have no idea why. |
| 2015-03-15 | 1 am | West Oakland | ”lots of police at 29th & Chestnut, same neighborhood as last week’s shooting. Didn’t get very close.” tweet1, tweet2 |
| 2015-03-09 | 5 pm | West Oakland | a shooting sfgate contra costa times |
| 2015-03-08 | 8:40 pm | Emeryville/Southwest Berkeley | ? |
| 2015-03-08 | 6:58 pm | Oakland/Lake Merritt | Police pursuit passed east up Park Bvld towards Mac Arthur 5-10 mins ago. Helicopter deployed a few minutes after. |
| 2015-03-04 | 12:45 pm | Oakland/Piedmont | ? |
| 2015-02-25 | 4:00 p.m. | 580 fwy betw. Park Blvd. and Lakeshore Avenue exits | Spilled load of concrete and bricks |
| 2015-02-20 | 5 pm | West Oakland | hit and run? |
| 2015-02-06 | 7:15 am | Oakland | |
| 2015-02-03 | 1:45 | Emeryville | officer involved shooting |
| 2015-01-28 | 12:30 pm | Downtown | |
| 2015-01-22 | 3-4:00 am | West Oakland/McClymonds | |
| 2015-01-18 | 8 pm | Downtown | #ReclaimMLK protest |
| 2015-01-15 | 2:30 | east oakland near 82nd and golf links | Police search for robbery suspects on Alvingroom Ct? |
| 2015-01-10 | 7 pm | Suter St. near I-580 | Suspects holed up; “We have you surrounded. Surrender or we will release the dogs. They will find you. If you run, they will bite you.” |
| 2014-12-15 | 9:00 am | Downtown | Protesters blocking Oakland Police HQ |
| 2014-12-09 | 2 pm | West Oakland (south of Mandela) | unknown |
| 2014-12-05 | all evening | West Oakland, Downtown | Eric Garner protests shut down 880 and West Oakland BART |
| 2014-12-04 | 2-2:30 pm | Jack London/Downtown | unknown |
| 2014-12-03 | 8:00 pm | Downtown | Oakland protests for Eric Garner decision |
| 2014-11-25 | 7-11 pm | Downtown, West Oakland, North Oakland | At least 2 helicopters filming protests. Livestream from ABC helicopter here: http://abc7news.com/live/7704/ |
| 2014-11-24 | 8:08 pm | Downtown | At least 3 helicopters in air monitoring protests. |
| 2014-11-24 | 5:50 pm | Downtown | Grand jury announcement regarding indictment of Ferguson police officer who shot Michael Brown. |
| 2014-11-08 | 1:43 pm | Lakeshore/Crocker Highlands | N442BN - unknown |
| 2014-11-01 | 11:08 am | Temescal | Shooting around 80th and International. Suspect fled to 38th and Clarke. |
| 2014-10-30 | 2:15 pm | Downtown | Probably because of gas leak that caused many downtown buildings to be evacuated |
| 2014-10-30 | 1:05 pm | San Pablo/580 Area | Circling for approx. 15 mins. UNCONFIRMED: CHP Motorcycle Officer struck by car in W. Oakland |
| 2014-10-25 | 11:00 pm | Temescal/Rockridge | unknown |
| 2014-10-22 | 4:15 pm | downtown | Oakland to Ferguson protest (on twitter: #O22) |
| 2014-10-08 | 4:10 pm | 30th & West | 4 circles, south of 30th. // shooting in 800 block of Apgar |
| 2014-09-24 | 11:00 am | Downtown/City Center | Citibank robbed at 10:30, got away |
| 2014-09-16 | 7:00 am | W. Oakland | 13th & Center, circled at least 3 times, really close to our house. Loud but couldn’t see from my window. |
| 2014-09-11 | 2:51 pm | Downtown/City Center | OPD helicopter flew over once |
| 2014-09-06 | 10-1130 am | Temescal (faint sound, distant circling) | unknown |
| 2014-09-05 | 5:00-6:45 pm | Downtown | Urban Shield protest. Here’s a picture.. |
| 2014-09-01 | 1:45 pm | Piedmont Ave | |
| 2014-08-26 | 7:45 pm | Downtown | BART equipment problems causing massive delays? Circling around 100 Grand Avenue, next to the Lake/Cathedral/Grand & Broadway. Here since at least 1930 |
| 2014-08-25 | 11:45 pm | Lake Merritt | Pursuit of motorcyclist w/ damaged headlight spotted doing 55+ down Park Blvd towards Lake Merritt/downtown. https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=795287733849270 |
| 2014-08-25 | 8:30 pm | Downtown | Downtown? |
| 2014-08-21 | 4:30 pm -5:45 pm and counting | Chinatown/Lake Merritt/West Oakland | Maybe still #dayofRage. |
| 2014-08-21 | 4:20 pm | Downtown | Somebody associated with Anonymous called for Day of Rage protests starting at 4:00 today in various locations, including Oakland, but it doesn’t seem to be real. http://www.snopes.com/info/news/dayofrage.asp |
| 2014-08-20 | 5:00 pm | 7th - 14th and Broadway | Protests against police violence |
| 2014-08-18 | 4:00 pm | OG/Frank Ogawa Plaza | Michael Brown solidarity event against police violence: Ustream |
| 2014-08-16 | 6:30 pm | West Oakland, near BARt | The block the boat protest. |
| 2014-08-15 | around 6:30 pm | OG/Frank Ogawa Plaza | Media choppers covering Michael Brown solidarity event against police violence: Tweet, Tweet |
| 2014-08-12 | around 1 pm | West Oakland | According to this tweet: “H32, @CHP_GoldenGate helo, assist @oaklandpoliceca w/search4stolen-car suspect, W Grand and Tele” |
| 2014-08-04 | 6:30 pm | West Oakland | Based on this tweet, it’s possibly related to small fire at West Oakland BART? Maybe not? |
| 2014-07-30 | 3:30 pm | West Oakland | any ideas? |
| 2014-07-08 | 11:40 am | 21st Avenue near East 27th Street | CHP helicopter circled several times. Played recording, “Come out with your hands out” and “We have the place surrounded.”- per Captain Toribio on twitter ”Police activity: Area 2 assisting Area 3 in area of 2100blk E.24 St. Barricaded carjacking suspect. @Area3OPD on scene.” |
| 2014-07-08 | 2:00 pm | lower dimond/580 | |
| 2014-07-01 | 3:30 pm | Foothill near High Street | CHP helicopter circled several times |
| 2014-06-23 | 9:45 pm ish | West Oakland | CHP Stolen-car suspect nabbed by @oaklandpoliceca, 30th/MLK w/help of @CHPoakland helo H30 equipped w/#FLIR (Forward Looking Infrared) (tweet) |
| 2014-06-23 | 9:20 pm | grand lake? | |
| 2014-06-20 | 9:00 am | High St. in Laurel | OPD,subject fled CHP traffic stop |
| 2014-06-20 | 6:45 am | Rockridge | Two helicopters: ABC 7 and Channel 2? Possibly the DUI/crash that has Tunnel Road closed? |
| 2014-06-18 | 6:35 pm | Border of San leandro and Oakland | 1 OPD chopper, flying in clockwise circle over Davis/San Leandro Blvd roughly; reason unknown |
| 2014-06-18 | 2:30 pm | coliseum | red helicopter N666RL circled the coliseum 2x |
| 2014-06-18 | 1:22 pm | coliseum | green helicopter flew NW past coliseum |
| 2014-06-17 | 2:19 pm | Dimond | 2 copters, flying way up high. 4 alarm brush fire in Dimond Canyon between Park Blvd and Sausal Creek. Pic of smoke from the fire. |
| 2014-06-12 | 8:30 pm | MacArthur and Piedmont Ave |
Blue helicopter flying in small circle for about 5 minutes OPD helicopter assisting Alameda Police in felony chase of green Toyota through Oakland, Berkeley and Emeryville. Chase went from Foothill to East 28th to MacArthur to Excelsior to WB I-580, bailed out at Fairmount Ave & Stanley Place before being caught. |
| 2014-06-11 | 4:20 pm | Near Oakland High School | Orange helicopter, not clear why it’s circling (orange is probably ABC. orangish-red is Coast Guard) |
| 2014-06-03 | 11:15 pm | Fruitvale | |
| 2014-05-26 | 7:50ish PM | dimond | CHP helicopter “Hot chase of theft suspect in Maxima by @CHPoakland w/@CHP_GoldenGate helo overhead, Fruitvale/580. @oaklandpoliceca monitoring only” (source) |
| 2014-05-24 | 11:50 am | downtown | Coast Guard helicopter headed north |
| 2014-05-16 | 11 am | downtownish | Looks like it’s relating to a large accident blocking 880: https://twitter.com/nataliealund/status/467363410263302144 |
| 2014-05-16 | 2:20 am | Temescal | Helicopter circling for several hours |
| 2014-05-01 | 7:30 pm | EASTMONT AREA | ”MISSING …-YEAR OLD GIRL. SHE WAS LAST SEEN…BLACK SHIRT…” |
| 2014-04-28 | 2:12 am | Fruitvale | Has circled at least 6 times. |
| 2014-04-27 | 7:45 am | Chinatown/Downtown | |
| 2014-04-24 | 12:45 am | circling over uptown/West Oakland | any ideas?At 0130, I called OPD non-emergency. They don’t know why the helicopters are in the air, but it may be related to the previous shootings tonight. I’m at Grand/Broadway downtown. At 0132, they turned towards Grand/Broadway and started making announcements on the megaphone that were unintelligible According to folks on twitter, the helicopter said “Come out now” and “Put your hands up” |
| 2014-04-23 | 8:45 pm | Eastmont Hills | Police helicopter circling with megaphone but we couldn’t make it out. Scary. ==> possible explanation here |
| 2014-04-18 | 1:00 pm | Montclair / Highway 13 | Channel 7 news chopper; possible water main break on Moraga near Maxwelton in Piedmont; Twitter link 1, Twitter link 2 |
| 2014-04-16 | 7:45 pm | Old Oakland | heard, not seen or IDed |
| 2014-03-23 | 9:30 am | Lake Merritt / Adams Point / East Lake | OPD chopper circling over running festival |
| 2014-03-23 | 7:30 am | Downtown/Piedmont Ave | Oakland running festival |
| 2014-03-16 | 11:59 pm | Lower Hills | |
| 2014-03-08 | 5 p.m. -ish | 28th Ave. at E. 17th St. | Assault reported at World Academy. Suspect at large following lockdown of school. |
| 2014-03-05 | 3:45 pm | Highland Hospital | Car was shot on I-580, and victim abandoned car and walked to Highland Hospital. Oakland PD took over investigation from CHP. Twitter link 1; Twitter link 2 |
| 2014-02-11 | 3:00 pm | Redwood Heights/Dimond/Laurel | Carjacking and related Amber Alert. SFGate. For awhile the helicopter was circling announcing the description of the car and the plates. |
| 2014-01-28 | 11:45 am | Oakmore Highlands, Upper Dimond near Mormon Temple | 81-year-old woman shot in shoulder, 4100 block of Laguna Tribune |
| 2014-01-27 | 11:30 pm | Laurel south to San Leandro | Shooting in front of Walgreen’s on High Street |
| 2014-01-08 | about 5:55ish | approximately macarthur and fruitvale, maybe over 580? | |
| 2014-01-04 | midnight (the evening of 1/4, into 1/5) | ??? | |
| 2013-12-12 | 3 pm-onwards | West Oakland | Argus (the OPD helicopter) was searching for suspects in West Oakland according to the OPD Twitter feed |
| 2013-12-04 | 9:30 am | Rockridge | NBC Bay Area (and others?) over Rockridge station to monitor station closure due to smoking parking brake in train in Berkeley Hills Tunnel |
| 2013-11-18 | 2:30 pm | Rockridge | Channel 2 (KTVU) + another chopper over Rockridge, possible overflight from crane rescue at JLS? |
| 2013-11-14 | 5 pm - 6 pm | over 580 or MacArthur BLVD. possibly vigil for Sasha? I bet it’s the march for Sasha Fleischman (source). | |
| 2013-11-03 | 4 pm | ??? | |
| 2013-10-25 | 4:40 pm | media (NBC Bay Area (KNTV), KTVU and KGO) keeping an eye on potential protests related to Urban Shield and the 2nd anniversary of Occupy Oakland’s eviction from Frank Ogawa Plaza | |
| 2013-10-08 | afternoon | Frank Ogawa Plaza | BART union rally at 5:00 at |
| 2013-10-?0 | 4:30 pm | Children’s Hospital Oakland | REACH Air Medical Service N312RX landing then taking off |
| 2013-09-26 | 3:30 pm | Mountain View Cemetery | Unidentified helicopter flying over , reg # N75TV, probably a news copter |
| 2013-08-18 | 10:30 am | Chinatown | 3 choppers in a row, headed to America’s Cup races 1 |
| 2013-07-13 | 1:48 pm | Emeryville | |
| 2012-02-21 | 5:20 pm into the evening | Berkeley MLK/Carleton/Dwight Way |
A BART train derailed near the Concord stop. |
| 2019-07-12 | from 6 pm to present 7:30 pm | Grand Lake area of Oakland over to Adams Point, Oakland | Unknown, perhaps an accident on 580? |
Memories of hearing helicopters
- I was living in the Lakeside neighborhood during the Occupy times and let me tell you, we heard a lot of helicopters. In the days leading up to the first eviction of the camp, everyone was wondering when it was going to happen. Would it be tonight? Maybe tomorrow night? A night without helicopters meant that Occupy had lived another day. And I still remember, I doubt I’ll ever forget, waking up in the middle of the night around 2 am on Oct. 25th and hearing the helicopters. Lying in bed, at home, everything was as quiet as normal, but I knew that just a few blocks away Occupy was being evicted. And I knew it from the helicopters. - mk30
- While working in downtown, I have seen strings of 3-5 similar choppers flying over Chinatown / downtown in the general direction of Richmond or San Quentin on at least four occasions, but have not been able to get any pix. It appears that they are heading to the America’s Cup, based on this picture from last October of the copter here. - NAParish
