Does anybody know what is happening in our sky today?

[MargaretR]

Does anybody know what is happening in our sky today?

As I sit here quietly webbrowsing, I have heard several (five or six) noisy transits of high powered planes passing over in the last hour.

They are very noisy and appear to be moving at great speed, because the noise passes quickly.

I have done a cursory search for news of any current military excercises but found nothing.

Boeing Guy, Dave in Germany - are you 'in the know' about this?

[Stanleymad]

Yeah heard em, tho they missed...........oh i thought they were going to flatten accy eyesores - maybe not

[lancsdave]

What looked like a Eurofighter has done a couple of reccy's over Accrington. Maybe the RAF have decided they can do a better job than the council in getting the place to look like a bomb site !

[Retlaw]

Been hearing them for the past two hours, they don't appear to be on any regular flight path, not like the usual traffic to manchester.
Retlaw

[derekgas]

I have heard them, I don't think the military would broadcast exercises/training flights, for the same reasons they don't publish military sights on maps.

[MargaretR]

I have seen NATO excercises listed in advance on a website, but didn't bookmark it for future reference.

It is reasonable to expect that some people need to know in advance e.g. the gliding club at Salmesbury wouldn't want to be airborne when all that was going on today. They must have been flying very low judging by the sound level.

[DaveinGermany]

I expect it's just normal routine, we've been seeing an increase in Military aircraft flights this week over here too. A lot of the personnel will be getting up to speed for the years training directives after the Christmas break & as the weather has "improved" flights are back on.

[MargaretR]

Found this-
Exercises 2011
..nothing is due to start until end of Feb


.....maybe one of Harry's mates is having another party at Blackpool and a few friends have dropped by

[MargaretR]

I have explored that NATO link a bit more and found that the Gulf of Aden is a hotbed of activity.
Operation Ocean Shield

Hmm - loads of warships from every corner of the globe have congregated to 'combat piracy'

At the same time there had been unprecedented geological activity just there
What’s Going On in The Gulf of Aden? – Planetsave.com: climate change and environmental news

It makes you wonder whether some new undersea weapon tests are happening
.....or as some conspiracy sites claim - there is an undersea 'stargate' to the 4th dimension opening there

Expect the unexpected

[Barrie Yates]

How about flight tests from Wharton on the Typhoons built there that were held up by the bad weather and the holidays?
Or even deep serviced Saudi Tornados that were delayed from returning for the same reasons?

[lindsay ormerod]

It was noted at work today, really noisy over our offices in Blackburn, very odd!

[jaysay]

So that's what it was, just thought it was me breathing more heavily than usual

[Sara]

Over at Kirkham today on a course, and it was quite noisy over there too.