Phoenix police chopper writes the name ‘ALEX’ in middle of the night

On Wednesday night, a Phoenix Police Department helicopter took off into the night sky from Deer Valley Airport at 11:30 p.m. and flew for nearly two hours. It flew south and then east to Scottsdale before cutting northwest to Glendale. After that, it took a big swing to south Phoenix before again turning north.

Then, about 45 minutes into the flight, the helicopter began circling just north of a stretch of Interstate 10 in west Phoenix near Maryvale. A map of the chopper’s flight path, captured on tracker websites like FlightAware, revealed what was going on. The chopper was spelling the name “ALEX” in the sky.


Who is Alex? And who was piloting the helicopter? What was the purpose of it? Phoenix New Times sent those questions to Phoenix police but has not received a response.

There’s no doubt the chopper is owned by the city of Phoenix. The chopper’s tail number, N624FB, is registered to the city and photos of the helicopter show “Phoenix Police” emblazoned on its body.

The purpose of the flight, which continued to veer back to Scottsdale and then circle above central Phoenix before returning to Deer Valley Airport at 1:17 a.m., is not clear. Flight tracking data shows the helicopter making many similar flights around the Phoenix area this month, albeit without any spelling escapades. Phoenix police have not responded to a question about the flight’s mission or the cost of operating it, though previous estimates have pegged the cost of a one-hour, 48-minute flight at around $2,160.

If the department took issue with the stunt, it hasn’t said so. Though it wouldn’t be surprising if residents living below the “ALEX” area were upset. Helicopters are loud and the police chopper began hovering over the area after midnight on a weeknight. Flight tracking data show the entire spelling process, including circling “ALEX” for emphasis, lasted about 15 minutes. The data also shows that the helicopter was flying below 2,000 feet the entire time, the lowest altitude of its nearly two-hour flight.

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After a Reddit user shared a screenshot of the flight path — which has since been deleted for unknown reasons, Phoenix residents sounded off in the comments. “Helicopters are expensive as shit to run,” wrote one user. “If that's a (Phoenix) PD bird burning dead dinosaurs on the taxpayer's dime so Alex can stroke his ego, some news organization should be asking some questions!” (We have!)

One user suggested the pilot was “probably trying to impress a girlfriend” on taxpayers’ dime. “Pilots will do all sorts of stupid goofy things when they are not paying for fuel or maintenance,” the user wrote. “PHX PD has been doing this kind of shit forever.”

A third user pointed out that the area under the “ALEX,” just west of Interstate 17 and north of I-10, is primarily a low-income, working-class area. About 76% of Maryvale residents identify as Hispanic or Latino.

“Keep the poor annoyed,” the user wrote, “while the rich in Scottsdale and Paradise Valley sleep in noiseless neighborhoods, have cold water in summer, and have no worry in the world.”