Locals were mystified at the activity of the plane as it ‘did loops around Westmeath and Longford’. Online flight records show that the plane, a Cessna Model 404 Titan registered to the RVL Group, left the East Midlands Airport in Derby, England, at 11.02pm on November 3. It spent more than four hours flying back and forth across Westmeath and neighbouring counties before returning to English airspace and landing at Nottingham Airport at 5.45am. “Some of the survey work we undertake for various environment, government agencies and entities can only be carried out at night for operational and technical reasons. “As these aircraft are conducting survey work on a specified area, it is rare that we have to cover the same area frequently.

Source: Irish Independent November 12, 2020 16:41 UTC