Explained: Deafening Aircraft Heard Over Hudson Valley, New York

Hudson Valley residents reported that their homes were shaking this week as a mysterious aircraft flew overhead. It turns out that this was no airplane.

I was sitting in my living room this weekend when I felt a deep rumble and heard something flying very low over the house. The sound was so loud that I ran outside to see what it was, but by the time I got out the front door, it had disappeared.

Quickly, I opened the Plane Finder app on my phone to see if I could identify what it was. The aircraft tracker showed nothing with a flight path anywhere near the vicinity of our house, which was unusual. The app is usually very accurate, showing commercial flights, private jets, helicopters and even military planes.

Residents Report More Loud Aircraft on Monday in Dutchess County, New York

On Monday, more reports started appearing on social media from residents in Dutchess County. Homeowners were complaining about loud airplanes flying low in the area, describing the same sound and rumble I had experienced over the weekend.

Some were wondering if the flight path to Stewart International Airport had changed, while others offered pseudoscientific-sounding explanations about sound displacement and the current weather pattern. It turns out that none of this was true.

Source of Loud Aircraft Over the Hudson Valley Confirmed

An eyewitness video was posted by Patrick O'Dell on the Dutchess County Scanner Feed Facebook group that explains the source of the loud noises heard overhead this week. The footage shows four large military helicopters taking off from Greenhaven Correctional Facility on March 1. According to O'Dell, these helicopters are being used by the National Guard to drop off supplies to military personnel assisting with the correction officer strike.

Another video posted to the page by Sean Ciufo includes audio that matches what many people have been describing as the loud noise rattling their homes.

It's unclear why these particular helicopters are not included on the Plane Finder tracking app, but it's not unusual for the flight data from some military aircraft to be missing from the publicly available app, especially if they are on an official mission.