The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department Aero Bureau helicopter, known as Air 29, flies above Santa Clarita, keeping a bird’s-eye view over the community.

Air 29 recently relocated from its former base in Burbank to the Santa Clarita Valley Sheriff’s Station seven days a week, prompting multiple posts on social media by residents asking, “Why is there a helicopter over my house?”

In response, the Sheriff’s Department invited KHTS Reporter Louie Diaz up in the sky to experience a day in the life of the aero bureau.

Misty Trejo, tactical air deputy, and Sgt. Morrie Zager, pilot of Air 29, work together to keep a bird’s-eye view of the Santa Clarita Valley and the Antelope Valley.

Like any first responder, Trejo and Zager never know what to expect when they launch from the rooftop of the Santa Clarita Valley Sheriff’s Station.

Once airborne, they fly around the Santa Clarita and Antelope Valleys, surveying the area, searching for suspicious activity and waiting for a request to help deputies locate and follow suspects, Trejo said.   

However, on Friday Nov. 16, while Zager and Trejo were still conducting their preflight check  just prior to hitting the start button, the need for Air 29 was needed.

“Air 29 from Air 8,” called out over the radio. “We have a pursuit coming toward Santa Clarita. Could you head our way to relieve us?”

As soon as Air 29 lifted off, the crew flew straight south down the I-5 freeway to assist the California Highway Patrol with their pursuit.

Once the helicopter made it over the pursuit, CHP officers conducted a Pursuit Intervention Technique known as a pit maneuver, a tactic which causes a fleeing vehicle to spin out, resulting in the car becoming disabled.

Following the pursuit, Air 29 flew north. Once they entered Palmdale, deputies requested backup for a vandalism suspect who was being uncooperative.

After circling the suspect a few times from the air, Zager queued up the public address system and told the suspect, “Get down on your knees now — we aren’t going to leave.”

Once the suspect heard the authoritative voice from the skies, he immediately surrendered to the ground units.

In the event a call goes out and deputies have a long response time, the crew in the helicopters are able to land and assist if the terrain allows for it.  

“A few years back we had a person try to commit suicide and responding deputies had a delayed response time,” Zager said. “We found a safe place to land the helicopter and render aid to the patient until other deputies arrived on scene.”

Even though Trejo is in the air for a majority of the calls she is assigned to and isn’t physically dealing with suspects, she noted she is still faced with challenges.

“I need to make sure ground units are listening to us,” Trejo said. “We need to be on the ball of what they are doing and they need to listen to us, because we might see things that they don’t.”

While in the air, Zager works with Trejo to position the helicopter in the best way so that Trejo can best asses the situation, and Zager is also always looking for immediate dangers to the helicopter.

“Immediate dangers are other aircraft, drones, lasers, terrain, wires and buildings,” Zager said.

But at the end of the day, these challenges are not enough to stop the duo from coming to work each day.       

“When you have a good partner, you look forward to coming into work,” Zager said. “It’s gratifying to know that we are a part of putting bad people in jail. But we did it by keeping our partners on the ground safe.”

As a patrol deputy for the majority of Trejo’s career, she remembers how helpful the air support was, and now she is able to help out her colleagues on the ground.

“I remember when I was on patrol, how much more calm I felt when aero went above,” Trejo said.  “It could be chaotic on the radio trying to set up a containment, and when aero went over, it brought a sense of calmness to a chaotic situation. and now I know that I am able to help bring the sense of calmness to those that we support.”

The next time residents are at home or driving around and see a Sheriff’s helicopter overhead, it doesn’t necessarily mean something is going on, according to Zager.

“If we fly over a neighborhood and someone who is thinking about committing a crime sees us, it might scare them away because they don’t want to be caught,” said Zager. “If we see a vehicle driving away suspiciously after they spot us, we will follow them and have ground units come check them out.”       

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