EASTOVER, S.C. — Residents in and around Columbia can expect a rare sight in the skies on Sunday as 24 attack helicopters will take flight together.
The South Carolina National Guard announced on Sunday that the flight will take place from 10 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. and involve 24 AH-64 Apache helicopters flying in formation. The flight will fly over Eastover, downtown Columbia, Lake Murray, and Lexington.
According to National Guard officials, the flight is meant to test "multi-ship operations for maintainers and flight operations personnel, large formation command and control, pre-fight coordination and operation capabilities of aircraft and crews."
The event will involve the 1-151st Aviation Regiment, Attack Reconnaissance Battalion, South Carolina National Guard, and supporting units.
The helicopters will take off from McEntire Joint National Guard Base and, according to officials "noise reduction measures" will be used during the flight.
The flight was originally set to take place on Saturday but was postponed due to unsafe weather conditions.
Additional details about the exercise weren't available since the event is a military training event. However, authorities said the formation would be easily visible to the general public.
