An icon of a desk calendar. An icon of a circle with a diagonal line across. An icon of a block arrow pointing to the right. An icon of a paper envelope. An icon of the Facebook "f" mark. An icon of the Google "G" mark. An icon of the Linked In "in" mark. An icon representing logout. An icon that resembles human head and shoulders. An icon of a traditional telephone receiver. An icon of a tick mark. An icon of a human eye and eyelashes. An icon of a human eye and eyelashes with a diagonal line through it. A two-lined pause icon for stopping interactions. A opening quote mark. A closing quote mark. An icon of an arrow. An icon of a paper folder. An icon of an exclamation mark on a circular background. An icon of a digital camera. An icon of a caret arrow. An icon of a clock face. An icon of the an X shape. An icon used to represent where to interact to collapse or dismiss a component An icon of a speech bubble. An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. An icon of 3 horizontal dots. An icon of a paper envelope. An icon of a facebook f logo. An icon of a digital camera. An icon of a house. An icon of the Instagram logo. An icon of the LinkedIn logo. An icon of a magnifying glass. A magnifying glass icon that is used to represent the function of searching. An icon of 3 horizontal lines. An icon used to represent a collapsed menu. An icon of an arrow pointing to the right. An explanation mark centred inside a circle. An icon of an arrow pointing to the left. An icon of a star. An icon of a tag. An icon of the Twitter logo. An icon of a video camera shape. A icon displaying a speech bubble An icon of the WhatsApp logo. An icon of an information logo. A mathematical 'plus' symbol. An icon indicating Time. An icon of a green tick. An icon of a greyed out success tick. An icon of a loading spinner. An icon of the facebook messenger app logo. An icon of a facebook f logo. An icon of the Twitter app logo. An icon of the LinkedIn logo. An icon of the Whatsapp messenger app logo. An icon of an mail envelope. A decentered black square over a white square.

Why Tayside residents were woken up by low-flying helicopters

The RAF confirmed Chinook helicopters were undertaking training exercises on Monday night.

A Chinook helicopter
A Chinook helicopter. Image: Blair Dingwall/DC Thomson

Residents across Tayside were woken up by low-flying helicopters on Monday night.

Residents in Dundee, Inchture, Milnathort and Arbroath all reported hearing helicopters shortly after midnight.

One man, who lives in the north of Dundee said: “I woke up around 12.15am after hearing what I thought was a low-flying helicopter above the house.

Chinook helicopters flying low over Tayside

“I thought it might be a police or coastguard helicopter but I looked online and couldn’t see anything on Flightradar.

“I had a fan on in my room so I thought, for a moment, that must have accounted for the noise but it definitely sounded like a helicopter.

“It was really noisy – it must have been going pretty low and fast.”

Chinook helicopter Tayside
The helicopters are undertaking training exercises from RAF Lossiemouth. Image: Blair Dingwall/DC Thomson

The Royal Air Force (RAF) has confirmed the noise was created by Chinook helicopters on a training mission.

It comes as Chinooks from RAF Odiham operate from RAF Lossiemouth in Moray for a fortnight.

An RAF Spokesperson said: “Chinook aircraft from 27Sqn at RAF Odiham are deployed on exercise based out of RAF Lossiemouth in Scotland.

“During the exercise crews are training with various military units around the east and west coast of Scotland.

“The Chinook aircrew must maintain their proficiency to low-fly in night tactical formation, using night vision devices.

“These low-flying skills are essential to practise before they are used in an operational environment.

“The crews take every precaution to avoid causing a nuisance to local residents, particularly those not used to routine Chinook helicopter operations.”

It comes weeks after an RAF aircraft was spotted flying low above parts of Dundee as part of a training flight.

Conversation