Londoners take to social media worried about the heightened aerial activity with ‘eerie’ looking helicopters being spotted over Regents Park
Tuesday 10th July | by Cop(ex) | Connect with us on Twitter |
Worried Londoners have been tweeting about ‘eerie’ helicopters which have been spotted flying over London prior to US President Donald Trump’s visit to the UK this week.
The aircraft, V22 Osprey’s, are certainly amongst the strangest looking helicopters that you will spot in the skies and are renown for their ability to ‘transform’ into conventional aircraft as they swap from ‘hover’ to ‘plane’ mode.
The US Military is the main user of these specialised aircraft which are mainly operated from the massive United States Navy aircraft carriers.
The UK civilian press have also picked up on the sightings and are equally as perplexed as to the potential motive and role of these American helicopters.
However, here at ‘Emergency Services News’ we are not the civilian press (as we are a team of former emergency services and armed forces personnel) so have a tiny bit more of an insight as to what might be going on.
I myself have served in the armed forces and spent quite a bit of time working alongside the US Navy whilst I was posted aboard one of our old aircraft carriers, HMS Invincible (now decommissioned).
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The V-22 Osprey is an American multi-mission, tiltrotor military aircraft with both vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL), and short takeoff and landing (STOL) capabilities.
It is designed to combine the functionality of a conventional helicopter with the long-range, high-speed cruise performance of a turboprop aircraft.
I would imagine that the aircraft are, in part, carrying out checks regarding potential emergency landing spots should any of the Presidents aircraft need to make any unscheduled stops.
I also suspect that perhaps the US Security Services are trying to get an understanding of the layout and topography of the area in order to gain an insight of any potential weak-spots when it comes to security threats.
The aircraft would have certainly obtained special exemptions from the National Air Traffic Services (NATS) prior to flying in what will be heavily restricted airspace.
This would have also involved letting our own security services, including my old Force the Metropolitan Police, know about the flight operations before they happened – so Londoners need not worry about the unusual activity.
It is believed that the aircraft are operating from the massive aircraft carrier USS Harry Truman as it has made its way north following a deployment that has seen it operate in-and-around the Mediterranean.
It is thought that US ‘Blackhawk’ helicopters will also be undertaking various manouveres in-and-around London in the run up to Mr Trumps visit.
These specialist helicopters are operated by the U.S. Army’s 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment.
The United States Army 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment (Airborne), abbreviated as the 160th SOAR (A) and also known as Night Stalkers, or within JSOC as Task Force Brown, is a special operations force of the United States Army that provides helicopter aviation support for general purpose forces and special operations forces.
Its missions have included attack, assault, and reconnaissance, and are usually conducted at night, at high speeds, low altitudes, and on short notice.
The 160th SOAR is headquartered at Fort Campbell, Kentucky.
If you see any of the aircraft, or happen to catch them on video, then send the images into us!
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