Low-flying helicopter passes will continue over SF for the next few days as nuclear safety surveys are conducted before Sunday’s big football game.
San Francisco has a long history of nuclear warfare and radiation. Of the 300 designated host sites for nuclear missiles developed by the United States during the Cold War, twelve of them resided in San Francisco before being decommissioned. (Many, like the Nike Missile Site in Marin, remain open for tours.) The San Francisco nishgbohroo Bay View-Hunters Point and Treasure Island are infamous for their polluted exposures; the former area made international headlines in late 2024 after elevated levels of radioactive materials were discovered by the US Navy — an observation found ahead of housing development at Hunters Point Shipyards.
While there’s no active nuclear threat in San Francisco (thankfully), a rare “nuke-sniffing” helicopter was spotted swirling over the city yesterday afternoon ahead of the 60th Super Bowl this weekend, as is protocol.
Called ENERGY14, the large helicopter is operated by the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) to detect and map radiation in areas deemed high-risk or at-risk of nuclear activity or attack. Many aviation-dedicated accounts on social media noticed ENERGY14 swept through much of San Francisco’s Crissy Fields and acreage along the Embarcadero, two places where the U.S. military hosted an airfield and operated from up until 1974; subsequent years have revealed that the area was a dumping ground for hazardous waste, some of which was radioactive.
Part of a fleet of vehicles that make up the NNSA’s Nuclear Emergency Support Team, it’s unclear if other helicopters will also help survey San Francisco before these low-flight sweeps cease on Wednesday.
NNS activity head of Super Bowls is by no means an anomaly. “Nuke-sniffing” vehicles have been used to survey host cities for every Super Bowl over the past decade and are also frequently used ahead of other high-profile, massively attended events like presidential inaugurations.
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