Who is flying the vertibirds?

With the Brotherhood of Steel being wiped out in Appalachia, who is flying the random vertibirds that appear throughout Fallout 76?

2 Answers

Fallout 76 starts on October 23 2102. This is much earlier in the timeline compared to other Fallout games, for example Fallout 4 starts October 23, 2287.

So at the time of Fallout 76 the BoS has not yet been decimated. Important to note is also that the Brotherhood has several chapters on the West and East coast so chances are big that they have not been completely wiped out.

The BoS is also not the only operator of the Vertibirds, the Enclave also uses them.

In Fallout 76 specifically there are automated Vertibirds flying around, known as Vertibots.

Sources: Fallout Timeline Vertibird on the Fallout wiki

Nobody is flying them, the larger craft are Vertibots, the smaller drones are Cargobots. See time 01:20:54 in the Oxhorn live stream "Day 16 of Fallout 76 Part 2" here: