Military aircraft has been spotted making several flights over the West Country. Flight trackers showed an Airbus A-400M Atlas plane flying over the county flying over Bristol and Weston.
The A-400M which flew over the region is specifically designed for humanitarian aid and the transportation of military equipment. According to the Royal Air Force the Atlas C.1 A-400M can carry a 37- tonne payload over 2,000nm to military airfields and short unprepared or semi-prepared strips, reports Wiltshire Live.
It is capable of operating at altitudes up to 40,000ft offering "low-level capability", accommodating as many as 116 fully equipped troops, vehicles, and helicopters. The aircraft with registration F-RBAR, appears to have set off from Orleans in North France at about 7.25am on Tuesday April 26.
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The flight path with number CTM2053 showed the plane circling the island of Jersey before heading towards the South West of England. The plane flew over Wiltshire between 9am and 1pm, looping around RAF Brize Norton a number of times. It appears to have landed at RAF Brize Norton and then travelled back down the South West coast towards France, where it originally began its journey.
Last month residents and plane spotters caught mesmerising photographs of A400M planes flying over Wiltshire where parcels were dropped from the sky. Two large military aircraft were spotted flying very low at around 6.30pm on Monday, March 7 and saw aircraft teams practice air-drops as part of their training missions.
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Wiltshire Live understands that military aircraft fly over the county either as part as their flightpath or to carry out training. RAF Brize Norton, based in Oxfordshire and near the Wiltshire border, sees many aircraft take off from and fly across the South West.
An RAF spokesperson said: “The RAF use a variety of locations around the UK for training as they provide complex airspace and differing challenges for our pilots to ensure we remain ready and able to deploy on global operations at any moment.”
The number of military aircraft flying over South West is not believed to have increased, but the more frequent sightings might be due to people noticing them more due to working from home or using flight tracking software to monitor aircraft.
