Aircraft circling low, with white lights flashing

when/where?

Police sometimes circle while using Stingray or similar to intercept criminal or other suspect mobile phones, but they wouldn't normally do it very low. I suppose they might have been constrained by the proximity of an airport. At one time you could sometimes see this activity on FlightRadar but now I think they have the option to prevent it being displayed.

West of Garforth, today 20:15 on..

newshound laid this down on his screen :

Do West Yorkshire have an police aircraft, I know they have an helicopter?

Didn't have a chopper handy.

I saw two military aircraft yesterday (Fri) flying in formation over Prestwich (3 mi N of Manchester) going roughly North.

SWMBO suggested it might be to do with the D of E funeral.

Planefinder.net does show a single aircraft arrive from the south, swizz around for a bit (doesn't look like 40 circles on screen, but don't know what resolution/interval it records at)

Seemed to spend longer over Huddersfield earlier in the afternoon

aircraft is G-POLV, which is a national police plane, so that seems to fit

Burning off fuel, photography, just being a pain to the locals? Brian

And how big a plane, you often see twin engined prop jobs doing that over traffic hot spots or some event or other here near London apparently. Brian

Visibility strobes.

Not necessarily on during daylight.

Waiting at a holding point for permission to join the landing circuit.

At one point in time, one of the London ILR stations used to use such a plane.

That depends upon the type of airport, the type and size of aircraft and how busy it gets. Most of the holding points for my local airfield are rarely used because it rarely gets that busy.

Depends on the size of the aircraft. I used to in mine.

Avpx (P1 lapsed)

We've had the same thing several times. Apparently the police are playing with a new fixed wing plane.

Bill

The centre of the tight circles was gradually drifting. It was too far away to ID the type of aircraft, which had the setting sun behind it. I've never seen one before with flashing white lights on the wing tips.

nightjar has brought this to us :

It was a very tight circle, the occupants would be dizzy when it eventually landed.

williamwright expressed precisely :

A possible explanation.

It doesn't work that way. The forces are downwards through your seat, so your inner ear doesn't get disorientated.