WHAT THE HELI: Rob Bresnahan’s Latest Investment is a “Secret Helicopter”

New reporting from NOTUS reveals that multi-millionaire Rob Bresnahan owns a “secret helicopter” that “retails between $1 million and $1.5 million.” Bresnahan has even “taken steps to conceal the helicopter’s flights,” and his office “did not answer detailed questions” about what the congressman uses the aircraft for and why he has tried to hide it.

Read the new reporting on the “whirling aspect” of Bresnahan’s wealth:

• First-term Republican Rep. Rob Bresnahan, a multimillionaire who recently sold control of his family’s electrical contracting company and now represents one of Pennsylvania’s poorest congressional districts, appears to have taken steps to hide one whirling aspect of his wealth: his new personal helicopter.
• The helicopter — a 2024 Robinson R66 that retails between $1 million and $1.5 million — has not yet appeared in Bresnahan’s personal financial disclosures. But NOTUS was able to determine that the helicopter belongs to Bresnahan by analyzing Federal Aviation Administration records, other congressional financial disclosures and commercial flight data obtained through the website ADS-B Exchange. Those records indicate that Bresnahan purchased the helicopter in late 2024, through a limited liability company named “RPB Ventures LLC.”
• The helicopter has made more than two dozen flights originating from the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre area in the heart of Bresnahan’s Pennsylvania district, according to a NOTUS analysis of Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast data, which in part helps air traffic controllers determine the location of aircraft. The reasons for the trips are unclear. A handful of trips crossed state lines, with destinations in New York, New Jersey and Rhode Island.
• When presented with the data, a spokesperson for Bresnahan confirmed the congressman purchased the helicopter last year while he ran for Congress. But the lawmaker appears to have taken steps to conceal the helicopter’s flights, and there’s no record of him ever publicly discussing his helicopter purchase and usage.
• Searching the comings and goings of Bresnahan’s helicopter on popular flight tracking website FlightAware, users are met with the message: “This aircraft (N422RB) is not available for public tracking per request from the owner/operator.”
• [Bresnahan’s office] did not answer detailed questions about Bresnahan’s helicopter use, including: For what purpose does he use his helicopter now? Who are his helicopter passengers, if any? Why did he fly his helicopter to the destinations he did? Why does it appear Bresnahan has made efforts to keep his helicopter ownership quiet? And to what degree, if any, is the congressman concerned owning a helicopter will make him seem less in touch with his constituents?

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