Bright light chased by helicopter

Was woken up in the middle of the night by a very bright light outside of my window.  I remember looking out and not able to see anything but light, it was so bright that it hurt my eyes to look at it, but I had to look at it.  For about a minute this went on until I heard the sound of a helicopter.  The light then quickly darkened, but I was still able to see a small dot of light, and watched as this light went upwards as the helicopter flew over the house.  My eyes were too sensitive from the brightness for me to see anything else after that as the light moved further away.  The helicopter had only a blinking red light on it, no white lights.  Before the helicopter came there was no sound being made by wherever the light was coming from.
Date is approximate.  PD