Sandown Airport has played a part in a Royal Air Force training exercise which has seen a chinook helicopter land at the airstrip this afternoon (Monday).
The pre-planned exercise comes just 4 days after a chinook made an appearance over the skies of the East Wight when it spent time hovering over Sandown Airport, as previously reported by Island Echo.
The legendary twin-engined aircraft, which is capable of carrying 55 troops, or up to 22,000lbs of cargo, is one of 60 chinooks operated by the RAF.
During its journey to the airport, the Royal Air Force Boeing Chinook CH-47 from RAF Odiham made an appearance over Ryde and Lake before descending from its 1,800ft altitude into Sandown at around 17:45.
Today’s landing saw troops arrive in the cargo space of the Chinook and practice disembarking and re-embarking the aircraft via the cargo door.
A large crowd gathered at the airport to see the rare sighting, with residents across towns on the East of the Island expected to get another glimpse as the helicopter departs.
Have we turned American now………22,000lbs of cargo means nothing to me. Like saying 21.6 Million custard creams or 80,000 rabbits.
Stupid is as stupid does .
My favourite flying object on the whole planet, wish stuff like this was advertised just for a photo etc