Low flying down but complaints take off

The Royal Air Force has revealed that low flying practice and training missions over the Newtown area have reduced by 60 per cent over the last 10 years, but complaints from locals are up.

Despite Britain being engaged in ongoing and drawn out conflicts, more recently in Afghanistan and previously in Iraq, cuts backs in the armed services have slashed the military traffic that has used our skies as a combat playground.

“It is strange but despite the huge reduction in flights, the complaints are up!” said Squadron Leader Albie Fox, the RAF’s Community Relations Officer for Wales. “The cut backs over the past few years mean that we are not training as many pilots. I am not sure why the number of complaints is up. I can only put it down to the fact that the flights are not occurring so often so when they do they are more noticeable to the general public.”

Albie was talking to mynewtown as the RAF launched a new service for letting people know about low flying missions over the area through social networking. Residents can now get instant updates by logging onto http://www.raf.mod.uk/crowales/ and following its Twitter and Facebook links.