Helicopter flight informationLAS VEGAS (INTELLIHUB) — Flight records, aircraft transponder data, and video footage all reveal that covert air assault and EXFIL operations may have transpired on the night of the massacre.
Flight records indicate that three Airbus EC130 helicopters registered to Mustang Leasing LLC (N-numbers N854MH, N848MH, and N858MH) departed from the vicinity of 6075 S Las Vegas Blvd between 9:40 and 9:41 p.m. on Oct. 1.
The choppers are affiliated with Mustang Helicopters, Maverick Helicopters, and Maverick Aviation Group, all of which are owned by a 68-year-old Army veteran named Greggory Rochna. In fact, according to Vegas INC, Rochna owns 47 Eco-Satr-130s, which “are among the best touring helicopters on the planet,” costing “$3.2 million” each. They use a quiet tail-rotor design which helps to quell unwanted noise generated by the aircraft’s prop-wash, as Jake Morphonios reported in a video which he posted to YouTube on Oct. 13 while conducting his multi-part “Las Vegas shooting investigation.”
After their departure, the three choppers flew to the north through the city in a tight line formation before circling back to the south where they abruptly stopped and hovered directly over the Mandalay Bay/Delano property 7-minutes later. In fact, N848MH hovered directly over a portion of Mandalay Bay’s rooftop just to the west of the Events Center Bar for several minutes (between 9:48 and 9:50 p.m.) before all three aircraft transponders went dark right at 9:50 p.m., just 15-minutes before the shooting started.
To give you a better feel for where the helicopter was (along with 2 others) I have provided a map of the MGM-owned property.
The venue which hosted the Route 91 Music Festival is located just 824 yards (2,705 ft.) away from where the three choppers were positioned in a solid hover before their transponders lost signal or were manually turned off.
The following image illustrates the vantage point the three helicopters would have had over the concert venue from the locations in which they were hovering at the time.
In theory, the choppers would each have had to offload two assailants (a total of six). Two of which would have taken sniper positions right away (one on the lower north roof under Stephen Paddock’s room and one on the northeast corner of the Convention Center roof) while the other element of four stormed the casino floor, making their entrance through the parking garage.
The three choppers (N854MH, N848MH, and N858MH) would have had to hold there positions or stay in close proximity to the Mandalay Bay for the next twenty minutes until all of the ended at 10:15 p.m. That’s when the two snipers would have made their EXFIL off the roof via chopper and returned to base with all three craft approximately three-minutes later around 10:18 – 10:19 p.m.
Hypothetically, the following image depicts what the shooters in the helos would have seen from their aerial positions as the three aircraft maintained a flat hover. The assailants would have been firing unmounted M-249 belt-fed SAWs due to the fact that mounted weapons would have been too hard for the three choppers to hide from law enforcement if an encounter were to occur upon their approach or getaway.
Hypothetical view that the shooters would have had of the concert venue from their aerial position. (google Maps)
And although 20-minutes seem like a long time for three helicopters to be hovering in the sky behind Mandalay Bay, its not. With the aircraft running lights off and the quiet technology the choppers would have been virtually unnoticeable in the night sky.
Keep in mind, the four-man element would still be on the property at this point where they would be traversing their way up to the rooftop of the Delano, inside the hotel’s interior, using a series of inner-connected hallways and stairwells in order to make a planned EXFIL from the southwest rooftop of the Delano Hotel at 10:24 p.m. in an entirely different helicopter altogether, just four minutes before the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department helicopter (N911WY) arrived in the vicinity for the first time following the gunfire.
To reiterate, the helicopter that arrived over the rooftop of the Delano and hovered for over one-minute was a separate helicopter than the first three.
The image below shows the location where the mystery aircraft first appeared while heading due north toward the Delano Hotel where it slowed then stopped over the roof.
Even more disturbing is the fact that the aircraft’s transponder was transmitting the call sign “SWA4119” which is registered to a Southwest Airlines Boeing 737-7H4 passenger jet with the tail number “WN4119.”
According to the data, “SWA4119” was originally scheduled to depart Tulsa (TUL) at 14:10 (2:10 p.m. PDT) and arrive in Las Vegas (LAS) at 15:00 (3:00 p.m. PDT) but was somehow delayed for over 7-hours giving “SWA4119” a new arrival time of 22:22 (10:22 p.m. PDT) which doesn’t make sense because the craft was headed north and was too close to the airport to be aligned with any of the runaways at the time.
You see, the aircraft that was displaying the call sign “SWA4119” between 10:21 and 10:22 p.m., which had first emerged on radar at 10:21, absolutely can not be a passenger jet because the actual flight data confirms that the aircraft slowed to a stop then changed its course abruptly to a due north heading before proceeding to hover over the Delano in a very specific spot for approximately one-minute (i.e. the craft in question was, in fact, a helicopter because jets simply cannot hover or change speed and course with such intensity.) This means that the operators of the craft were intentionally transmitting a fictitious call sign before going dark (invisible) from radar altogether.
To top it off, the Oct. 1 flight data for Southwest Airlines “WN4119” is showing inconsistencies.
The following screen-capture of the the aircraft’s flight history shows that “SWA4119” landed at 10:22 p.m. at (LAS) despite the fact that a transponder was pinging from the rooftop of the Delano at that exact same time.
Not to mention, the tail number listed for that exact flight is “N227WN” and not “WN4119” as the transponder was emitting in real-time suggesting that the plane on the tarmac that “landed” was “N227WN” which is a different aircraft entirely.
The red arrow points to the exact location where the helicopter was captured on flight radar hovering between 10:21 and 10:22 p.m. Note that it is directly over the Delano Hotel’s southwest rooftop to the foot. (Screenshot via Google Maps) (modified)
After EXFIL, the mystery helicopter (previously masked as “SWA4119”) departed to the west where it looks like it may have met up with a pack of seven other choppers, all of which are currently registered to Mustang Leasing LLC.
All seven had departed from the vicinity of 6075 S Las Vegas Blvd, just minutes before, at 10:12 p.m., again, as if it was all part of a highly coordinated plan.
After the seven choppers departed their base they looped up and around the city where upon their return they were directed to stay far west of the strip due to the fact that the situation was still active.
The seven choppers were flying southward at the time in a perfect line formation and that’s when the aircraft that was masking itself as “SWA4119” with its transponder off at the time that was hovering above the Delano may have made a covert merger and inserted itself directly into the line of seven other choppers which were on their way back to base in order to mask its return. At that point there would presumably be a line of eight Mustang Leasing LLC helicopters, seven of which were captured on radar headed back to base where they all landed a few moments later.
The N-numbers of the seven helicopters with active transponders at the time are as follows: N858MH, N853MH, N848MH, N868MH, N821MH, N854MH, and N816MH.
Shockingly, video footage captured on a GoPro camera during the shooting coincides with flight data and reveals what appears to be multiple muzzle flashes coming from several different elevations in the sky between the Mandalay Bay and the Delano Hotel.
Flashes can be seen emitting from the exact spot the Mustang Leasing LLC choppers N854MH, N848MH, and N858MH were captured on radar hovering just 10-minutes prior to the shooting when their transponders all simultaneously stopped transmitting.
I also must point out that according to FAA records nothing should be in the airspace beyond the two buildings at that time and that there is no structure beyond the buildings which would warrant shooting from that elevation (i.e. the flashes are occurring in free air.)
Could the choppers have been lurking back there, beyond the hotels, for the entire 20-minutes?
At 6:47 – 7:00 in the video, what appears to be muzzle flashes can be seen at different levels in the sky. (Screenshot via Arch Angel Studios/YouTube)
As a caveat, at 6:52 into the video a shot can be seen coming from room 32-134 which is the room directly adjacent to Stephen Paddock’s suite. Astonishingly, the flash looks the same as the flashes in the sky. It appears that the shooter in room 32-134 is firing at the same time as the flashes in the sky can be seen! It appears to be a simultaneous volley of gunfire.
