The Royal Netherlands Air Force has treated a popular Lake District adventure attraction to a flyover after troops visited on a day off.
Honister Slate Mine welcomed a group of 60 troops who visited during their down time to take part in some the mine’s adventure activities over May’s last bank holiday weekend.
Days after the military’s visit, staff and visitors at the attraction were treated to a flyover on Wednesday by two Chinook helicopters and some were lucky enough to catch the spectacle on camera.
The troops are currently based at Spadeadam, one of Cumbria’s Royal Air Force stations and Carlisle Airport to take part in flight training in the area.
Owner and Director of the attraction Prentice Wilkinson-Weir said: “They just turned up on a day off and they had a leaflet and said they wanted to do everything.
“We weren’t expecting it and with it being half term it was quite busy but we managed to squeeze them in so it was really good and they said they planned to come back next month.
“They brought 60 troops and did the Via Ferrata Xtreme, a mine visit inside the old caverns and we took them out canyoning.
“We were having a crack with the guy who organised the visit and we were asking them to come and fly through and he said they had a flight planned for Honister and asked us if there were any wires in there way for a flyover.
“Jets do come over here all the time but these were helicopters and very very low so it was really cool for us to see.”
The Air Force originally planned to bring 270 troops along to take part in the adventure experiences but the number was lowered so helicopters at Carlisle airport could be secured.
Lauren Beaty, activity co-ordinator at the attraction, said: “They’ve been doing flight training and wanted to keep an adventure theme and decided this was a good place for them to come.
“They were all so polite and nice and they emailed us to say they’d had an amazing time and that everyone really enjoyed it and that they hoped to see us again.
“They come to Cumbria every year and they were really interested in all the activities we have on offer, so with it being bank holiday it was about getting them into the best activities we could.
“We’ve been doing a lot of work with British military groups coming and doing adventure training with us, so it’s nice to spread to international adventure training and be not only a tourist destination, but be recognised as somewhere people can do this training and not have to travel overseas to do it.
“It’s just incredible getting to see planes come through here, I’ve been here seven years and you never get bored of the jets coming through. It’s always something that is really cool to see.”
Chinook helicopters – thought to be the same ones used by The Royal Netherlands Air Force – have been spotted all across the county over the past few days.
Some have also been spotted firing test flares during the night off the Solway coast near Silloth.
Multiple Apache helicopters and Chinooks were also spotted flying low over Derwentwater on Monday.
Peter Anderson, of Windermere, also caught a video of a group of seven Apache and Chinook helicopters flying northeast from his garden on the bank holiday Monday.
The same group of helicopters were also spotted flying low over Winster on the evening of bank holiday Monday.
Taken by David Roberts, the helicopers can be seen narrowly skimming the roofs of houses in the South Lakeland village.
Have you spotted some of the low flying military aircraft over the past few days? Send us your pictures and videos to [email protected]
