§ Mr. Andrew F. Bennettasked the Secretary of State for Defence whether he has received any reports of military aircraft flying below 250 feet during the past year.
§ Mr. WellbelovedWe have received occasional complaints to this effect. These were carefully investigated but none has been substantiated.
§ Mr. Andrew F. Bennettasked the Secretary of State for Defence what populated areas in the United Kingdom are designated as low-flying training areas for military aircraft; and what percentage of these areas are in England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, respectively.
§ Mr. WellbelovedMilitary low-flying training is conducted over the more thinly populated districts representing about half of the total land area of Great Britain. About half of the available land of this kind is to be found in Scotland; about 10 per cent. in Wales; and the remainder, about 40 per cent. in England.
557W
§ Mr. Andrew F. Bennettasked the Secretary of State for Defence what percentage of RAF low-flying training in conducted over each affected county in Great Britain.
§ Mr. WellbelovedThe distribution of military low-flying training over each county is not available. On the basis of low-level movements made with the Military Air Traffic organisation in 1975 the distribution of the training between England, Scotland and Wales was in the ratio of 76 per cent., 9 per cent., and 15 per cent. These bookings are the only statistics readily available but they do not necessarily represent the incidence of the flying that actually took place. Preliminary indications are that the probable distribution was: England, 79 per cent.; Scotland, 10 per cent.; Wales, 11 per cent.
§ Mr. Andrew F. Bennettasked the Secretary of State for Defence whether he will give, area by area, the number of complaints about low-flying military aircraft received by his Department during 1974, 1975 and 1976.
§ Mr. WellbelovedThe number of low-flying complaints was:
1974 1975 1976 (1st January to 30th June) England … 1,001 1,081 301 Wales … 107 162 51 Scotland … 219 272 103
§ Mr. Andrew F. Bennettasked the Secretary of State for Defence if he will publish particulars of the number of complaints received relating to low-flying military aircraft in each of the last five years.
§ Mr. WellbelovedThe number of complaints received was:
1971 … … … … 1,057 1972 … … … … 1,005 1973 … … … … 1,528 1974 … … … … 1,327 1975 … … … … 1,515
§ Mr. Andrew F. Bennettasked the Secretary of State for Defence how many low-flying military exercises have taken place over (a) Wales and (b) central and south-west Wales in the first six months of this year.
§ Mr. WellbelovedIn the six months January-June the Military Air Traffic558W organisation recorded 9,953 low-level movements for Wales, of which about 4,440 were in central and south Wales.
§ Mr. Andrew F. Bennettasked the Secretary of State for Defence how many low-flying military exercises have taken place over (a) Wales and (b) central and south-west Wales in each of the last five years.
§ Mr. WellbelovedThe number of low-level movements booked with the Military Air Traffic organisation was:
Central and South Wales Wales (including Central and South Wales) 1971 … 5,757 10,360 1972 … 6,745 14,325 1973 … 8,046 18,399 1974 … 7,984 18,427 1975 … 11,449 24,879
§ Mr. Andrew F. Bennettasked the Secretary of State for Defence what was the number of low-level flights by military aircraft in Great Britain as a whole in each of the last five years.
§ Mr. WellbelovedThe number of low-level movements booked with the Military Air Traffic organization for Great Britain as a whole was:
1971 … … … 144,661 1972 … … … 144,893 1973 … … … 163,090 1974 … … … 160,053 1975 … … … 176,528
§ Mr. Andrew F. Bennettasked the Secretary of State for Defence what measures have been taken to make military aircraft more conspicuous in order to help avoid accidents during low-level training exercises.
§ Mr. WellbelovedMeasures already fall into two categories—the use of distinctive paints and of special lighting. The use of bright paints is not suitable for combat aircraft which would need to avoid detection in operations, but bright colours are used for non-operational aircraft. Red occulting lights or flashing beacons are already widely used by all types of aircraft and landing lights are switched on during low flying by aircraft which can operate them at cruising speed. Trials are also in hand to fit high intensity strobe lighting, but there are technical problems, especially with 559W regard to combat aircraft, still to be over-come before widespread fitting can be considered.