Love is in the air

People who know him through work jokingly refer to Freitas as “Chopper Brad,” a name he earned from Twitter, where he tweets the news as he’s covering it. Since it’s become his brand, it didn’t come as much of a surprise to anyone that on one of the biggest days of his life he would incorporate aviation in some way—except maybe to his girlfriend, Kara Sutherland.

The proposal planning took a while because Freitas needed approval from his bosses at Helicopters Incorporated to use the company’s backup ship, a Bell 206 Jet Ranger. Luckily, they said, “yes.”

While he is not a pilot himself, aviation is still a big part of Freitas’ everyday life. Needing an experienced pilot for the special day, Freitas turned to his friend and colleague, Bobby Ratliff, to help pull off the stunt. Ratliff gave up one of his very few days off to help, knowing how much it would mean to everyone involved.

Since there are usually only two people aboard the helicopter for news coverage, Ratliff worked with Freitas to ensure weight and balance and fuel considerations could accommodate one more special passenger—Freitas’s future bride. The plan also included working with air traffic control and airport personnel since this would be outside of normal operations for Maryland’s Tipton Airport.

They needed 3 miles visibility and 1,000-foot ceilings to pull off the proposal, and weather reports leading up to the day were mixed. It wasn’t until 8 a.m., just four hours before the big reveal, that improving forecasts showed they would be able to surprise Sutherland. “I guess it was meant to be,” said Freitas.

Freitas and Sutherland planned to spend the day together in Baltimore, with the caveat that Freitas was on call for any breaking news at work. As luck—or strategic planning—would have it, halfway to Baltimore, Freitas received a call from his pilot telling him they had a breaking news flight and he would need to come into work.

The “news” Freitas and Ratliff devised was a water rescue at the Chesapeake Bay Bridge, outside of the heavily controlled Washington, D.C., Flight Restricted Zone they fly over every day in the nation’s capital. Sharing this news with Sutherland, Freitas said she could join him in this once-in-a-lifetime chance to ride along, and she took the bait.

More than 70 friends and family gathered on the ground in Laurel, Maryland, about 50 feet from the end of the Tipton Airport runway, holding a banner that Freitas spent countless hours creating on the floor of his company’s hangar.

In a video Freitas created of the proposal, he begins a faux news report stating that, “A large group has gathered on the east end of the Tipton runway.” Then he turns to Sutherland in the helicopter asking her to report back what she sees on the ground as shown on a TV screen in front of her. When she takes a closer look at the monitor, Sutherland sees friends and family surrounding the banner that says, “Kara, will you marry Brad?” and she exclaims, “Babe, are you serious?”

To make it official, after they landed, Freitas got down on one knee with the ring and asked her again, and Sutherland happily said “yes” for the second time.