By Carlos Medina

A group of military aircraft, including Blackhawk helicopters, are currently conducting operations out of the Gainesville Regional Airport.

The group is part of a joint Department of Defense operation, said Linda Aguiar, Gainesville airport spokeswoman on Wednesday morning.

She did not confirm, however, that those aircraft are associated with the low-flying military aircraft spotted over the Ocala area in recent days.

The joint operation aircraft will be at the Gainesville airport through Thursday, Aguiar said.

When Eva Angelini heard a distant rumble Saturday night she paid little attention, but quickly the rumble became a loud roar of powerful aircraft engines that shook her windows and scared her dog.

“We ran out and looked up in the sky and right over our heads, very low, the sky was filled with black aircraft which were flying without lights,” Angelini said.

Reports of black military-style aircraft buzzing the Ocala area were rampant over the weekend and into Monday, but no one seems to know what they are doing in the area.

The aircraft, a mixture of helicopters seemingly flying in formation around a large airplane, were last reported on Monday morning between 2 and 3 a.m.

“We have some P-8 Poseidons training in the area, but they wouldn’t be up at 3 in the morning. Other than that, we have nothing going on at Pinecastle (the bombing range in the Ocala National Forest) and again, they wouldn’t conduct operations at those hours,” said Kaylee LaRocque, a spokeswoman for the Naval Air Station Jacksonville.

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