Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
Available On Air Stations
Watch Live

Military

Was Navy Jet's UC Berkeley Fly-By A Brotherly Shout-Out? (Video)

A Navy jet's fly-by the UC Berkeley campus last week left babies crying, dogs barking, and a baffled community in its wake. Now, it turns out the pilot may have been trying to give his brother a shout-out before moving to Texas.

The kerfuffle began on Jan. 27, according to the Navy Times, when the pilot of an F/A-18E Super Hornet flew over campus during a training flight.

UC Berkeley student Liam Rohlsson told NBC Bay Area:

Advertisement
"When I heard it I thought someone was invading Berkeley or something."

The Contra Costa Times reports the Navy is now investigating whether the pilot did something wrong, as Navy spokeswoman Lt. Reagan Lauritzen explained in an email to the newspaper:

"While training missions in the local area are common and the pilot was under positive FAA control, the U.S. Navy is investigating the flight to ensure the aviator complied with all FAA and U.S. Navy regulations."

According to Lauritzen, the F/A-18E Super Hornet, based at Naval Air Station Lemoore, flew between 2,500 to 3,000 feet over Berkeley.

Independent news website Berkeleyside was contacted by a man claiming to be the brother of the pilot. He wrote to Berkeleyside in an email that his brother...

“...is moving to Texas at the end of the week so he thought it would be cool to fly over campus while I was there before he left. Not that much to the story unfortunately.”

@Quirkeley put the chaos in proper perspective on Twitter:

"We survived. #berkeley #flyovermageddon"