blue angels | CHS Capitol Hill Seattle News

A Blue Angels jet targets Volunteer Park (Image: Tiffany Von Arnim via Flickr)

Freedom isn’t free but the roar of the Blue Angels screaming over the city won’t cost you anything this week as the Boeing Seafair Airshow returns to the skies of Seattle. Below, you will find the schedule for the week’s practices and performances including when the U.S. Navy will be buzzing Capitol Hill.

The crew and its squadron of Boeing F/A-18 Super Hornet jets are fresh in from Fargo, North Dakota. Chicago is next on the list, then Colorado Springs, Wichita, and Cleveland.

The jets regularly zip across Capitol Hill and sometimes feel exceedingly close to the ground. At 443 feet above sea level, Volunteer Park is one place to salute the pilots as they pass. At the top of the park’s 75-foot water tower, you can make eye contact as you say hello.
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Mike Ross and crew in 2010 after after receiving the A14 fighter jet for the future installation in Capitol Hill Station (Image: Kat Nyberg Photography with permission to CHS)

Mike Ross and crew in 2010 after after receiving the A4 fighter jet for the future installation in Capitol Hill Station (Image: Kat Nyberg Photography with permission to CHS)

The return of fighter jets above the skies of Seattle has CHS thinking about the fighter jets destined to fly together underneath Capitol Hill.

For the Blue Angels, here’s when to make sure your babies, pets, and skittish friends are in a safe place over the next few days:

2014 – I-90 Seafair and Blue Angels Closures
The annual Seafair festival begins when the pirates land the first week of July and ends with the Blue Angels flying over Lake Washington in a spectacular display of aeronautics. The Washington State Department of Transportation’s (WSDOT) role is to make sure drivers and pilots are safe during the annual event.

The Federal Aviation Administration requires WSDOT to close Interstate 90 while the Blue Angels perform for the safety of both drivers and pilots.

Which roads and ramps will be closed?

Interstate 90 will be closed to all vehicles, pedestrians and cyclists, eastbound and westbound, mainline and express lanes, between Interstate 5 in Seattle to Island Crest Way on Mercer Island:

Thursday, July 31: 9:45 a.m. – noon; 1:15 – 2:40 p.m. (Practice)

Friday, Aug. 1: 12:15 p.m. – 2:40 p.m., (Practice)

Saturday, Aug. 2: 12:15 p.m. – 2:40 p.m., (Full show)

Sunday, Aug. 3: 12:15 p.m. – 2:40 p.m., (Full show)

Below ground and slated to hang above the boarding platform with the opening of Capitol Hill Station in 2016, Jet Kiss by artist Mike Ross features two A-4 fighter jets deconstructed and re-assembled in a kind of frozen mid-air embrace. “This monumental sculpture is created from two decommissioned A-4 Skyhawk fighter jets,” Ross wrote of his creation.