Hovering Choppers Inspecting Lines In Chatham: Borough Officials

CHATHAM BOROUGH, NJ — If you wonder about helicopters hanging around power lines in Chatham Borough in the next two weeks, they're doing routine patrols for Jersey Central Power & Light, looking for transmission line issues, officials have announced.

Chatham Borough said, weather permitting, Chesapeake Bay Helicopters will be mobilizing to the JCP&L Region and will begin performing routine patrols on all JCPL 500kV, 230kV, 115kV lines.

"These patrols are anticipated to take about two weeks to complete, but as always, work is strongly weather-dependent and completion could be impeded by any post-storm or outage-related patrols that may occur," an announcement stated.

The helicopters to be used for these patrols are black Hughes MD500 models, with tail registration number N748CB, the Borough's notice said. The words "Utility Patrol" appear low on the helicopter. View a photo here. The helicopters may be seen hovering or circling around transmission lines as inspectors look at structures, conductors, and hardware on the lines, the alert explained.

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