A congressman who represents one of the poorest districts in Pennsylvania appears to have gone great lengths to hide that he owns a $1.5 million helicopter.
NOTUS reported on Friday that Republican Rep. Rob Bresnahan owns a 2024 Robinson R66, a chopper that retails between $1 million and $1.5 million.
Bresnahan has yet to list the helicopter on his congressional financial disclosure forms.
He's never spoken about it publicly and it's unlisted on the popular flight tracking website FlightAware.
'This aircraft (N422RB) is not available for public tracking per request from the owner/operator,' a message reads, NOTUS found.
The news site was able to get a spokesperson to admit Bresnahan was the owner by analyzing Federal Aviation Administration record, other congressional financial disclosures and commercial flight data made available by the ADS-B Exchange website.
The website found that he purchased the helicopter in late 2024 using a limited liability company called 'RPB Ventures LLC.'
A spokesperson for Bresnahan told NOTUS that the Pennsylvania Republican bought the helicopter while he was campaigning for Congress last year.
Republican Rep. Rob Bresnahan, who represents a district in Northeast Pennsylvania, bought a helicopter that retails for between $1 million and $1.5 million ahead of last year's election and didn't disclose it publicly until a spokesperson was asked about it by the start-up NOTUS
Bresnahan's Eighth Congressional District is located in the northeastern corner of Pennsylvania and includes the communities around Scranton - the birthplace of former Democratic President Joe Biden - and Wilkes-Barre.
Bresnahan narrowly won his race, flipping a district that had been held by Democratic incumbent Rep. Matt Cartwright.
The Republican won 50.8 percent of the vote compared to Cartwright's 49.2 percent.
Bresnahan is a multi-millionaire who grew his family's electrical contracting company Kuharchik Construction, with projects including the lighting at the Chester County Airport and traffic signals in downtown Wilkes-Barre, according to the company's website.
Spokesperson Hannah Pope told NOTUS that the chopper was originally intended to be used for business purposes.'In emergency situations such as downed power lines or washed-out roads, helicopters play a critical role in inspecting infrastructure and identifying areas in need or urgent repair,' Pope said.
'Since being elected to Congress, those business plans have been put on hold. No taxpayer or campaign funds were used to purchase the aircraft, and no taxpayer or campaign funds are used to store, operate, or maintain the aircraft,' she added.
Pope declined to answer additional questions posed by NOTUS, including 'For what purpose does he use his helicopter now? and Who are his helicopter passengers, if any?'
NOTUS discovered that Republican Rep. Rob Bresnahan had purchased a 2024 Robinson R66, a chopper that retails between $1 million and $1.5 million in 2024 and it first arrived in the Scanton/Wilkes-Barre area in mid-September, during the final weeks of the campaign
An additional call for comment from the Daily Mail to Bresnahan's congressional office went unreturned Friday.
Flight data found that Bresnahan's helicopter first landed near Scranton on September 19, 2024, a little more than a month before the election.
In the days and weeks following it took a number of flights around the Scranton and Wilkes-Barre area, during the height of Bresnahan's campaigning against Cartwright.
Bresnahan mentioned after the January crash over the Potomac River between an American Airlines commuter jet and a Army Black Hawk helicopter that he was pursuing a helicopter pilot license - but made no public mention that he owned a helicopter himself.
House members needed to fill out new financial disclosure forms in May that would have covered the 2024 period in which Bresnahan purchased the chopper, but the Pennsylvania lawmaker asked for a 90-day extension.
He now must disclose his personal finances by August 13.