This story was updated at 10 a.m. April 30, 2020, with new information about flyover plans.
A military flyover to salute medical workers and first responders is planned for Saturday at Suburban Hospital in Bethesda and the local region, a military spokeswoman confirmed Thursday morning.
The Navy’s Blue Angels and the Air Force’s Thunderbirds will conduct flyovers on Saturday over Maryland, Virginia, Washington, D.C., and Georgia, according to a press release from the military on Thursday.
Gov. Larry Hogan’s office announced Wednesday that the flyovers would happen in Maryland on Saturday, but gave no other specifics. He declared Saturday to be “Health Care Heroes Day.”
On Thursday, the Air Combat Command, which schedules and coordinates the activities of the demonstration teams, put out a media advisory that said the Blue Angels and the Thunderbirds will fly over Baltimore and Washington, D.C., on Saturday.
Flyovers over D.C. and “surrounding communities” will start at 11:45 a.m. and last about 20 minutes, the press release stated.
Leah Garton, a spokeswoman for Air Combat Command, wrote in an email Thursday that the D.C. flyovers would include Suburban Hospital. The specific routes and times for the flyovers would be released later, she said.
Last weekend, a crowd gathered near Suburban Hospital in Bethesda, after hearing from the hospital that flyover would be that day. However, it turned out to be the wrong day.
Garton, told Bethesda Beat Tuesday morning that the initial Suburban announcement about the Saturday flyovers was due to the “inadvertent release of planning and coordinating information. The information shared did not come from either of the demonstration teams’ official accounts.”
Another crowd waited on Saturday in the neighborhood of Sibley Hospital in Washington, D.C., also hoping to see the flyover.
Vanessa McMains, a spokeswoman for Johns Hopkins Medicine, wrote in an email Wednesday that she had no additional information about the flyovers.
The announcement from Hogan’s office also says the State House dome in Annapolis and the sports facilities Camden Yards and M&T Bank Stadium in Baltimore would be lit blue.
Dan Schere can be reached at daniel.schere@moco360.media
