Troop Helicopter over London

I was just outside having a smoke (14:00 22/7/04), and a double bladed helicopter flew over at about 300ft.

Flights over London are heavily restricted.

I'm not familiar with choppers so couldn't tell you what one it was. It had a large door at the back.

Anyone have any ideas what iot would be doing over London, I was in the Kings Cross area and it was heading North East.

Originally posted by Koka
I was just outside having a smoke (14:00 22/7/04), and a double bladed helicopter flew over at about 300ft.

Flights over London are heavily restricted.

I'm not familiar with choppers so couldn't tell you what one it was. It had a large door at the back.

Anyone have any ideas what iot would be doing over London, I was in the Kings Cross area and it was heading North East.

Probably a miltary Helicopter returning to its base or something. Nothing odd, here. I see them going over Canterbury all the time

Twas a Chinnook... Travelling from Dorset to Linconshire.


Regards

Boon_Dog

Boon_dog - A Chinnook it was. How do you know where it was coming from and going to?

Nothing untoward here...just a scheduled movement of resources.

Regards

Boon_Dog

Scheduled..??

I've never seen one flying over London before.

Please elaborate.

It was authorised, was nothing covert or suspicous the flight plan was arranged that way and approved by airline authorites.

Regards

Boon_Dog

If a helicopter is flying from Dorset to Lincolnshire, I would have thought "via" London would be a touch round the houses, and are they not capable of flying above 300 hundred ft on, what appears to be about a 300 mile trip?

Are you just guessing/speculating?

LOL sounds like Boon Dog is in the know on this one!! Don't worry I won't press you I'f you're not allowed to say anything, but London isn't between Dorset and Lincolnshire!. Maybe it was stopping off at RAF Northrop? That's pretty close to central London, so if it was taking off or landing it would appear pretty low.

It is not for me to say why they had that flight plan (no disrespect intended).....
But rest assured it was a chinook and it was nothing to worry about, routine stuff going on. This happens from time to time...


Best regards

Boon_Dog

He certainly conveys an air of knowing, but i'm far from convinced.

It's not like I believe it's an invasion force or the like.

In fact I'm more intrigued with his response than I am about the frigging helicopter....

lol...



Regards

Boon_dog

Beware the Mighty Chelski....!!

i live in yorkshire in the deep country i am garnteed every night there are some type on raf thing flying over they some times have to fly in all types of areas alot of night flying happnes near me and it was mainly after alot of troops came home from iraq .

"No Fly Zones" apply to civilian flights. Military flights are allowed access as long as they've notified the aviation authorities.

Nothing new, i saw a chinook escorted by 3 ah64's over london once about 5 years ago.

Military helicopter flights also use the Battersea heliport a lot. Again purely logistical movements to/from the London based barracks.

There was a strange incident in my town a few weeks ago that was a bit puzzling. A chinook overflew the town very low then circled and landed in the local park. A parked car then drove up and the driver got out and spoke to someone who came down the ramp then drove off again as the chinook left. Even the local police were in the dark as to what was going on

Hi Boon_dog

I take it you must work for the air control?
I see you are from Manchester , i guess you maybe work out of Manchester air port with the knowledge you seem to have? I could be wrong though.

I live in west Yorkshire and get a lot of Lynx, Pumas and Apache helicopters flying past. Fairly common sight. We do get the odd Chinook as well.
They are only based 30 miles away from me.

bikereddie im from doncaster you must of heard of it your a yorkshire lad?

Boon_Dog is slightly off here on the 'where', but spot on with a Chinook. The military has two bases in central London that they regularly (and by that I mean several daily) land and take off from in Chinooks. I see them daily and they do not have a scheduled flight plan, they are simply used to transport supplies and soldiers from place to place.

One is the Chelsea Barracks here: www.streetmap.co.uk...,178250&st=4&ar=Y&mapp=newmap.srf&searchp=newsearch.srf


And the other is The Royal Artillery Corp based here: www.streetmap.co.uk...

Merkin.