A Black Hawk helicopter due to make a community relations visit to Standley Lake High School arrived slightly later than planned after the crew accidentally landed at the wrong school.
Staff and students at Pomona High School, Colorado, were moved inside from the school field as the unexpected helicopter approached to land. School Principal Patrick Rock described it as a “unique incident” in an email to parents, which also assured no harm had come to anyone as a result.
Pomona High School is approximately 4 miles from Standley Lake High School, in the Denver suburb of Arvada, where the Black Hawk was due to attend a Day Without Hate event. Military helicopters of various nations make somewhat regular appearances at schools and public events to help reinforce community relations. The practice of landing the helicopter in an unfamiliar, and sometimes confined, landing area is also a training opportunity for the flight crew.
Students and staff at Pomona High School in Arvada were greeted with an odd surprise Thursday morning — a military helicopter unexpectedly landing on the school’s field.
— Denverite (@denverite.bsky.social) April 25, 2025 at 3:29 AM
Approaching from the south, it would appear that the premature landing was a simple case of misidentification. Pomona High School was situated directly south of Standley Lake and along the helicopter’s flight path. The Black Hawk touched down at Pomona around 11:30am local time on Thursday, Apr. 24.
After realizing their mistake, the flight crew took to the air once more for the short hop north to the correct high school, where the visit, presumably, went without any further problems. No damage to any facilities was noted at Pomona High School, where, as they had not prepared for a helicopter arrival, there may have been unsecured objects that posed a foreign object debris (FOD) risk.
The HH-60M Black Hawk came from Fort Carson, a U.S. Army post around 80 miles to the south of Denver. Major Jeffrey Windmueller, a U.S. Army spokesperson, said the cause of the crew’s mistake is currently unclear: “Upon realizing the discrepancy, the crew promptly relocated to the correct landing zone at Standley Lake High School without further incident”.
According to Scramble, Butts Army Airfield, the airfield section of the Fort Carson complex, is home to three helicopter battalions flying a mixed fleet of UH-60L, UH-60M, and HH-60M Black Hawks, CH-47F Chinooks, and AH-64E Apaches. The 6th Attack Reconnaissance Squadron, 17th Cavalry Regiment is also based at the airfield with three flights of legacy generation AH-64D Apaches.
School visits are one of the more common outreach events which garner attendances from helicopters, sometimes tying in with an alumni of the school who now flies from a nearby base. As well as providing a training experience and assisting with the service’s outreach strategy, it is also used to generate interest in recruitment.
In December, special visits are sometimes arranged where a member of the helicopters’ crew will play the role of Santa as a military or emergency services helicopter brings them to a school to visit the children and deliver presents before schools break for Christmas.
