A high-tech police plane with state of the art cameras was spotted flying in loops over Merseyside.
A Vulkanair P.68R registered to the Police & Crime Commissioner for West Yorkshire, was seen looping over a number of areas in Liverpool including the city centre, Old Swan, Speke and Bootle. According to FlightRadar the plane took off from Doncaster just before 9pm and flew straight to Merseyside.
The plane then spent more than two hours circling over Liverpool before flying to Birmingham Airport.
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People on social media presumed the plane was in the region due to the "serious" crash on Onslow road, at the junction of Prescot Road in Kensington, where a man in his 20s suffered potentially "life changing" injuries after being thrown from his electric bike.
The ECHO understands the plane was not in the region for this incident and could have been searching for a missing teenager.
Vulcanair P68 planes are based at Doncaster and provide air support for a number of police forces, including Humberside Police. Grimsby Live report said the brightly-coloured planes are fitted with L3 WESCAM MX15 state of the art cameras.
After they were announced, the National Police Air Service said: "When the aeroplanes are operational, they will be deployed from NPAS’ Doncaster base. They will join the existing fleet of helicopters, which fly from 13 other NPAS bases."
GrimsbyLive added that the new planes are cheaper to run and maintain than rotary aircraft. They have greater endurance than helicopters and will mean that police air assets will be able to stay ‘on station’ for longer periods of time than helicopters.
Merseyside Police was approached for comment.
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