Aerial survey leaves strange flight path over Wales

STRANGE flight paths have been spotted across South Wales this week.

The dramatic row of zig-zag lines appeared over Cardiff and the South Wales Valeys on Tuesday, with a similar pattern occurring over Carmarthenshire and Swansea on Monday.

The strange paths left people using flight tracker apps confused as to what the aircraft has been doing.

As a result of the coronavirus pandemic, the number of flights taking to the skies has dramatically decreased in recent weeks.

On Monday afternoon, the RVL Aviation 1OS took off from East Midlands Airport before making its way over Wales and zig-zagging over Carmarthenshire and Swansea.

Viewed on a flight tracker app it looked something like a giant old fashioned radiator.

It eventually landed back at East Midlands Airport nearly four hours later.

Just before 9am on Tuesday the same aircraft left East Midlands Airport and flew over the Gower and Neath Port Talbot areas before landing in Exeter.

Later that day the aircraft returned to East Midlands Airport but not before zig-zagging its way over Cardiff and the South Wales Valleys.

The RVL Aviation 1OS was back in the sky on Wednesday morning as it flew over Mid Wales before making its way to Exeter again.

The reason why these strange flight paths have been occurring is because the UK’s largest aerial survey company, Bluesky International Ltd, has been completing aerial surveys across the country.

The company maintains a threeyear update programme of vertical aerial photography in Wales, Scotland and England which is then “processed and corrected so it is map accurate”.

This data is licensed to both the public and private sectors for applications such as planning, flood modelling, coastal erosion analysis, map production, civil engineering projects, forestry management and disaster planning.

Bluesky carries out aerial surveying of this kind on a regular basis, however, as the skies are less congested at the moment the strange flight paths have become more noticeable.

The company also captures light detecting and ranging data which is “highly accurate height data” of vegetation and manmade features, which provides threedimensional information for planners, architects, engineers and telecommunications.