People living in Helston were surprised to hear an extremely loud aircraft fly over the town this morning (Wednesday).
Just before lunchtime, people reported hearing a large rumble from RNAS Culdrose which was heard from people living in residential areas near the base, and even on the opposite side of the town.
“I was folding up washing in my kitchen, and then all of a sudden I heard this massive rumble from an aircraft,” said one Helston resident.
“I went outside to see what it was, but it was so cloudy I couldn’t see anything – but I knew it wasn’t the usual aircraft which are usually seen and heard in Helston.”
The large aircraft was seen taking off from Culdrose’s runway before disappearing into the clouds.
According to FlightRadar 24 – an app which details every flight from aircraft across the world – the large aircraft was identified as a Boeing C17A Globemaster III.
The route of the aircraft on the app showed that it had left RAF Brize Norton (near West Oxfordshire) to carry out a test flight.
RNAS Culdrose has confirmed that the aircraft was in fact a Boeing C17A Globemaster.
A spokesperson said: “The aircraft was an RAF C17 transport plane out of RAF Brize Norton.
"It didn’t land here at Culdrose but made an approach and flew over the runway as part of aircrew training.
"Visitors of this kind are not common, but we do have military aircraft which use Culdrose from time to time for navigation exercises.”
However, this isn’t the first time a colossal aircraft of this nature was seen in Cornwall.
During the G7 Summit held in St Ives in 2021, the Boeing C-17 Globemaster from the USA was seen arriving at RNAS Culdrose.
At the time the Packet reported that people watched in ‘amazement’ as the huge aircraft flew low overheard as it approached the runway of the Helston navy base.
After much speculation as to what was onboard, it was revealed that two identical helicopters were offloaded from the US Air Force carrier plane.
The helicopters were from the Marine Helicopter Squadron One, a United States Marine Corps helicopter squadron responsible for transporting the President.
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