MIAMI – A flyover in Miami grabbed the attention of many on social media, and it’s led to even more questions.
Videos taken by several South Floridians and beachgoers show a helicopter releasing a spray of blue over the water as part of an extensive gender reveal.
The company Gender Reveal Miami dubbed it as the “most epic reveal ever” while proudly posting a video on its Instagram page, which can be seen below.
A helicopter flew over Haulover Beach Sunday, while police boats were in the water below.
The chopper released a blue trail of something while a very cheerful, confetti-cannon holding crowd gathered on the sand and in an area that was roped off by yellow caution tape.
Confetti that, of course, had nowhere to go, or blow, except all over the beach.
Natasha Tomchin and Charles Levine were at the beach and were dumbstruck by what they were seeing.
“If you’re going to have a party, OK, whatever, that’s not my judgement to make, but to have a party, to be dumping stuff in the water, dumping stuff all over the beach, and then not care at all, something about that feels gross,” Tomchin said.
Levine shot video of blue confetti scattered all over the sand. He also kept the camera rolling when he spoke with some of the people attending the gender reveal.
They had no answer when he asked who was going to clean up the mess on the sand.
“The resources being used to do a gender reveal that is polluting and sectioning off a part of the beach, making it private, not letting other people go there on a Sunday, it seems a little egregious,” Levine said.
Local 10′s Layron Livingston called Keen Fly, the helicopter company, to find out about the blue substance they were releasing into the air.
The woman who answered the phone told him that blue powder is cornstarch-based, adding that it is non-toxic, can be consumed, won’t harm any animals and dissolves in the water.
Livingston also spoke with a manager at Gender Reveal Miami, who said the company only provided smoke bombs, photography and the helicopter. The manager also said that confetti they use at other gender reveals is biodegradable, but that the company did not provide any for Sunday’s event.
However, Levine pointed out that just because the confetti is biodegradable, that doesn’t mean it can just be left wherever it falls.
“If it’s biodegradable, that means it goes into a landfill and biodegrades there,” Levine said.
Local 10 News confirmed that the gender reveal was for an off-duty Miami-Dade police officer who requested rescue personnel to be there.
They were on patrol and nearby, police said.
The Miami-Dade Police Department sent Local 10 News a statement, which read:
“We are happy to have been able to share in this special day for one of our officers and his family. These are difficult times and we are pleased whenever we are able to bring joy to members of our community, which our officer is also a part of. Thankfully, we have been able to share in many other special moments throughout the year with our community and encourage all to browse our social media channels to see examples of these special moments.”