Low, off-course flights alarming for Windsor

Outbound flights from Heathrow are supposed to fly to the north of Windsor.

The plan is that they follow the Noise Preference Route (NPR).

With hundreds of planes departing in a day, things don’t always go to plan.

So when one overflies Windsor town centre, we all know that something is going wrong.

They can be extremely low and noisy – recently one reached 78 decibels.

At this noise level, conversation is very difficult.

Perhaps more importantly, is it alarming to look up at the belly of one of them knowing that it is loaded with people and fuel – the full weight can be getting on for 100 tons. It just triggers all the worst fears.

They are off course, alarmingly low and when we look up we know that it shouldn’t be there and that something is going wrong.

More than 100 such low, off-course flights have overflown Windsor town and its houses since January.

Isn’t it time Heathrow stopped alarming us in this way?

ANDREW HALL

Windsor