Rescue helicopter will return, remain in Newport, Oregon’s US senators say

The U.S Coast Guard has promised to indefinitely return a life-saving rescue helicopter to its facility at Newport’s Municipal Airport, Oregon’s two U.S. senators said Thursday, capping weeks of angst in the town ahead of a dangerous crab fishing season. 

The U.S. Coast Guard removed the helicopter in late October with no public explanation from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security for why it was relocated to a North Bend Coast Guard facility nearly 70 miles away. U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden, Rep. Val Hoyle and local officials have all previously said they were trying to find out why the helicopter was removed amid speculation that the Trump administration could be repurposing the site for Oregon’s first long-term immigration detention facility. 

Wyden told reporters on Nov. 23 that a Coast Guard representative had given him unsatisfactory answers attributing the change in facility operations to a lack of adequate staffing. On Thursday, he shared on X that the Coast Guard had reversed course. 

“This is a big win to keep fishermen as well as Oregonians and tourists visiting the Newport area safe when they are enjoying the Pacific Ocean,” Wyden said in a statement Thursday. “I’ll keep watchdogging this Coast Guard commitment and battling against any move by the Trump administration to site an ICE detention facility in Newport or anywhere else on the Oregon Coast.”

The homeland security department and U.S. Coast Guard did not immediately respond to a request for comment Thursday.

The helicopter’s removal quickly sparked opposition from residents. The coastal city of Newport is home to Oregon’s largest commercial fishing industry, with cold and rough waters occupying the Yaquina Bay. Both the state of Oregon and the local nonprofit Newport Fishermen’s Wives alongside Lincoln County sued for the return of the federal helicopter, arguing that the federal government failed to comply with federal law requiring transparency on such decisions.

U.S. District Judge Ann Aiken handed the nonprofit and Lincoln County a victory on Nov. 24 with a temporary 14-day restraining order that mandated the helicopter’s return. The next day, John Fuller, a city spokesperson, confirmed that a rescue helicopter had landed for refueling, but he was unable to say whether it was remaining at the Newport airport on a more long-term basis. Fuller did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Thursday.

U.S. Sen. Jeff Merkley also confirmed the helicopter’s return, adding that he had arranged a meeting with a representative of the U.S. Coast Guard and Wyden. He said a member of the homeland security department in attendance gave “full backup” to the Coast Guard’s statement.

“The acting commandant assured me that they had returned the helicopter because of the court action, but they had intended to return it by the start of crab season anyway, and it was back in Newport to stay,” he said in a video statement posted on X.

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The announcement from Wyden and Merkley comes as lawyers for the state of Oregon, Lincoln County and Newport Fishermen’s Wives have filed for a preliminary injunction seeking for a rescue helicopter to stay at Newport’s facility with full operational and staffing support necessary. The two cases have been consolidated, with discovery yielding a June 2025 memorandum and October 2025 extension authorizing removal of the helicopter from Newport by U.S. Coast Guard Rear Admiral Charles E. Fosse. 

“There is no question that the Coast Guard’s removal of the Newport helicopter, undertaken in secrecy without any public or congressional vetting whatsoever, is exactly what Congress intended to prevent,” wrote attorneys for the Newport Fishermen’s Wives and Lincoln County in a Thursday court filing.

It’s not the first time Newport residents kicked into action when their helicopter faced removal. When the Obama administration proposed closing the city’s Coast Guard facility in 2014, the Fishermen’s Wives nonprofit sued in federal court. Congress ended up passing a law that requires notice and explanation from the homeland security department should a reduction in Coast Guard facility activity take place.

“The ocean can turn on a person in half a minute,” Newport Mayor Jan Kaplan said in a court declaration. “It is not a matter of if the helicopter will be needed, but when, and whether or not it will arrive in time to save a life.”